Ports Project has ‘numerous irregularities & questionable payments’ – PAC report
The Interim special report of the Committee chaired by Leader of the Opposition Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal OBE, makes some serious allegations as it relates to the controversial Ports Development Project extension, a signature pet project of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Government.
The PAC Report
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) interviewed many persons including Sonia M. Webster the Auditor General who also raised the alarm in her own report last year; Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority Claude O. Skelton-Cline; Gregory W. Adams former Board Chairman; Wendell M. Gaskin Deputy Financial Secretary; Gene E. Creque the former Deputy Managing Director of the Ports and Chairman of the Board J. Edward DeCastro among many others.
From interviewing these many persons the PAC made it clear in its report that the evidence given was both informative and “alarming to state the least.”
The Committee’s examinations, thus far, of the project have “revealed that there have been numerous apparent irregularities and questionable circumstances and actions [with] regards to the project in question” and calls for further investigations.
The report also found to be true that the BVI Ports Authority Board’s duties and responsibilities were “usurped” and concluded that the Board “was excluded from important decisions in regards to the project.”
The PAC examinations thus far according to their report revealed “that the process for the engagement of consulting and contracting companies seems not to have been properly documented.”
Over $1.7 Million gone!
In the report obtained by this news site the PAC stated, “thus far the absence of full transparency and apparent withholding of important requested information from the PAC…brings into question whether the correct procedures were followed and are being followed.”
Another serious issue that raised the red flag for the committee is what the report described as the “many questionable payments including but not limited to the approximately $1.7 million dollars to Tortola Pier Partners and the variable and increasing payments and employment of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and called for these matters to be further investigated.”
The Report stated that its examinations unearthed, “the escalating cost of the project from a total of $12 million dollars to in excess of $30 million dollars, excluding the land side development, is excessive, unsubstantiated and/or insufficiently justified based on the information provided to the Committee thus far.”
The report by the five-member PAC with Hon. O’Neal as the Chairman said it finds that the concerns raised by the Auditor General Ms. Sonia M. Webster in the Auditor General Report dated January 31, 2013 on the Port Development Project have merit and required in-depth investigations.
The Auditor General's Report of last year on the Ports Development Project unearthed corruption, conflict of interest, disregard for the laws of the Virgin Islands, unfair practices, undue influence in favour of one developer, disregard for the established tendering process and found that no one was looking out for the interest of the people and taxpayers of the Virgin Islands, putting the people at a disadvantage.
It remains unclear if the PAC’s call for ‘further in-depth investigations” meant that they were referring to a Commission of Inquiry that is usually set up by the Governor.
More to come this week on the PAC Report
Please see Virgin Islands News Online link to original Auditor General Report article
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66 Responses to “Ports Project has ‘numerous irregularities & questionable payments’ – PAC report”
It sound like you protecting something, because you have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not see what is going on in this country. Corruption is at the highest that I have ever seen it. I live through the VIP government, and what is happening under NDP top the whole periods that the VIP governed.. Haiti, Guyana and Trinidad pale in comparison to the Corrupt NDP government in the BVI. Corruption is bigger than the size of the BVI. What a damn shame.. Btw, only people who are getting their share of what is being plundered from the public, don't see anything wrong.
What is the Government waiting for? Send this man back to DETROIT!! He only up at the Port playing King Soloman with a thousaand wives.