The defence lawyer for the former Post Fiji Chairman, Mahendra Patel in the abuse of office trial has alleged in the Suva High Court today that architect Adish Naidu was negotiating with Prouds to purchase an exterior clock months before the Post Fiji Limited board had given its approval.

Hamendra Nagin alleged in his summing up to the assessors that in August 2002 when the first phase of maintenance started on the General Post office building, Naidu had started negotiations with Prouds Bhupendra Patel in sourcing the clock.

Nagin stressed that none of the correspondence emails or letters were sent to Mahendra Patel to keep him in the loop about the purchase.

According to Nagin, on the 30th of April 2003 the suppliers of the clock overseas had informed Prouds that it would be impossible to install the clock by June before the South Pacific Games as it may take a few more months to arrive in Fiji.

Nagin said Bhupendra Patel informed Naidu about this however Naidu did not take any action and continued with the construction work.

Nagin told the assessors that as Architect Supervisor, Naidu could have informed Post Fiji to cancel the purchase order however he was getting over $6,700 as fees to source the clock.

He added that Prouds only made a profit of $1,600 on the sale of the clock to Post Fiji.

He alleged that Naidu had given false statements in court saying that Chairman Mahendra Patel’s company wanted to supply the clock to Post Fiji.

Nagin said they are not disputing that Patel was not a public servant while serving on the Post Fiji board.

He added that they strongly deny that there was any arbitrary act and there was no personal gain by approving the purchase of the clock.

Earlier today former Managing Director for Post Fiji Peni Mau’s lawyer Devinesh Sharma highlighted on one of the witness Joseva Kamikamica’s statement that the clock was a gift, saying this clock was a gift from Post Fiji to the people of Suva.

Sharma said architect Adish Naidu negotiated with Peni Mau about the purchase of the clock in March 2003 as he was very keen to have a clock on the newly renovated Post Fiji building.

Sharma added that the Post Fiji board approved the Capital works for phase two in April 2003 which included the clock.

He said independent Auditors audited the Post Fiji accounts and did not find anything wrong on the payment of $75,000 to Prouds for the purchase of clock.

Sharma said tenders were not called for the purchase of the clock as time became critical to install before the SPG began and he didn’t want to disobey the architect.

The case continues.

Story by: Ronal Deo