Former Petrojam General Manager Floyd Grindley and chairman of the board of the State-run oil refinery Perceval Singh were both freed of fraud charges in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday, bringing to an end a trial that had been ongoing since 2022.

Singh was accused of claiming for overseas trips and meetings he did not undertake, while Grindley allegedly aided and abetted Singh.

The claims, which amounted to more than US$73,000, were made between December 2016 and May 2018.

Veteran attorney KD Knight, King’s Counsel, who represented Grindley, said that the case was not founded on a political charge as was believed by most Jamaicans, but was “about failings in an institution and these failings took place because the institution did not behave as it ought to have done through its agents who were employees of the institution”.

Knight said that trial judge Justice Maxine Ellis gave a very thorough and lengthy presentation as to how she arrived at her decision.

“She was very analytical and followed the law to the T. What she said was that the evidence that was adduced did not show that there was any conspiracy between the general manager and the chairman of the board to misappropriate funds of Petrojam nor did it show that there was any agreement, neither singularly nor between the two accused, to induce the employees of Petrojam to carry out any criminal act,” Knight said.

He said the atmosphere at Petrojam was such that where the system provided that it should correct any error made at any stage during the process of expending Petrojam’s money, that the system broke down and the persons who, along the chain had responsibilities, did not carry them out effectively.

“What was clear was that there was no dishonest intent between the two senior persons in the corporation. Her analysis of the evidence pointed out that persons who had particular responsibilities did not effectively carry out those responsibilities and had they, then some of the errors would not have occurred,” Knight said.

“The staff at Petrojam did not know the relevant rules and regulations… From the very outset this was a point being made by the defence and the cross examination … showed that Petrojam suffered from a lack of leadership before Mr Grindley became general manager and Dr Singh became chairman of the board. It was evident that there were senior officers who were not aware of their responsibilities,” he said.

Singh was represented by attorneys Bert Samuels and Matthew Hyde, while Grindley was represented by Knight and Bianca Samuels.