The directive has been given for the National Sports Authority audit to be the focus of a police investigation, but Opposition Chairman Fred Mitchell insisted there are deficiencies in the report that showed a number of discrepancies in the accounting of the affairs of the authority.
“I have a specific experience as Minister of Foreign Affairs where the Auditor General said $1 million dollars was missing and $1 million wasn’t missing, it turned out not to be so.”
“There are others too; there was one done on Urban Renewal, that was debunked because all an audit is, is when you show up on the day with your auditors, it’s what you find on the day you get there. Look at the Oban file that has gone missing under this administration.
“Our point it that you can make these alarmist headlines that money is missing, that things are gone, and things haven’t been done and I’ve said before, that I will put my head on a chopping block about this particular matter that it is impossible for money to separate itself from the Treasury without the proper paper work being in place,” he said.
That aside, Mr. Mitchell has made it abundantly clear that he has no confidence in the Police Force – under National Security Minister Marvin Dames’ direction – conducting an impartial, non-partisan and independent investigation.
In fact, he’s convinced that any investigation under such circumstances will be tainted by political bias and therefore not worth the paper it is written on.
He is then reiterating the call for the Minister to either resign or be dismissed.
“There is in the law, and constitutional conventions, a prevision called a presumption of regularity.”
“So someone who is not judicially condemned, who can head that department can then come with a clean slate and a Minister is responsible for his personal conduct and that of his department.”
“No Minister of National Security would allow the Prime Minister or Cabinet to direct what he does, because he must stand on his own two feet,” Mr. Mitchell said.
The PLP Chairman’s accusing the government of attacking the PLP.
