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Government prosecutors are to disclose on Monday whether they have enough evidence to prosecute East Kingston businessman Danhai Williams and six others charged in the multi-million dollar NHDC/Operation Pride fraud scandal.
Over the past month government prosecutors have been struggling to keep the case from collapsing.
They argue that two of their key witnesses have left the country and cannot be located.
Last week the prosecutors applied for an adjournment of the trial, stating that they needed another four more months to track down the witnesses.
But this request was denied by magistrate Georgiana Fraser who gave them until Monday to put up a case.
The prosecutors acknowledged that it would be impossible to prosecute the case without the witnesses-Lloyd McLean and Gerald Tobias.
Mr. McLean, an engineer and Mr. Tobias, a quantity surveyor, were both employed to the NHDC.
They are reported to have been the persons who signed off on NHDC/Operation Pride projects and are needed at the trial to identify signatures and documents involved in the case.
Mr. Williams and the six other accused were charged in October 2003 following a one-year probe into allegations of financial irregularities in the NHDC/Operation Pride projects.
They are accused of defrauding the Corporation of $451 million.
The other accused are financial controller of Danwills Construction Karl Kirkland; former Director of Technical Services at NHDC, Warren Sibbles and former Project Manager of the NHDC, Donovan Hill.
Eugenny Porter; Wayne Nash and Dwight Dawkins who were all Presidents of various Provident Societies are also charged in the case.
Over the past month government prosecutors have been struggling to keep the case from collapsing.
They argue that two of their key witnesses have left the country and cannot be located.
Last week the prosecutors applied for an adjournment of the trial, stating that they needed another four more months to track down the witnesses.
But this request was denied by magistrate Georgiana Fraser who gave them until Monday to put up a case.
The prosecutors acknowledged that it would be impossible to prosecute the case without the witnesses-Lloyd McLean and Gerald Tobias.
Mr. McLean, an engineer and Mr. Tobias, a quantity surveyor, were both employed to the NHDC.
They are reported to have been the persons who signed off on NHDC/Operation Pride projects and are needed at the trial to identify signatures and documents involved in the case.
Mr. Williams and the six other accused were charged in October 2003 following a one-year probe into allegations of financial irregularities in the NHDC/Operation Pride projects.
They are accused of defrauding the Corporation of $451 million.
The other accused are financial controller of Danwills Construction Karl Kirkland; former Director of Technical Services at NHDC, Warren Sibbles and former Project Manager of the NHDC, Donovan Hill.
Eugenny Porter; Wayne Nash and Dwight Dawkins who were all Presidents of various Provident Societies are also charged in the case.
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