Inshan Ishmael to be paid for work on police vehicles

THE State has finally agreed to pay businessman Inshan Ishmael $0.83 million owed to him for vehicle maintenance work his company, ROC, did for the police service.

This comes after the State entered a consent order agreeing to pay. The consent order was signed off by Justice Carol Gobin and made available to Ishmael's attorney and the State on July 23.

The State also agreed to pay pre-judgment interest of $20,556.34 and $53,967.16 in costs. The consent order was expected to be formalised in March. However, attorneys for the State said they needed instructions on a certain aspect of the businessman’s claim. This was done on July 3.

This comes after attorneys for the police service admitted Ishmael was owed at least $0.83 million.

Ishmael had sued the State to recover the money owed to him. His attorney Richard Jaggasar also filed a freedom of information request to the police service which admitted he was owed $834,405.21.

This admission was made on March 23.

At a hearing on March 25, Gobin questioned the State’s instructions, since the police admitted Ishmael was owed for the work his company had done for the police service.

“You have the State saying, 'We owe no money and have no contract,' and now…'Can we grant judgment?' Why is he not entitled to the sum?

“Let the AG know the judge intends to grant judgment for that sum,” Gobin said at that hearing.

In its letter on March 23, the police legal unit said a thorough, detailed reconciliation exercise from the police’s finance branch showed the total sum of estimates, invoices and quotations by ROC was $1,801,225.34, of which $966,820.13 had been paid. The legal unit gave the outstanding balance as $834,405.21.