Rumour is one thing, evidence is another- Governor Duncan
Both the Auditor General's Report and the Public Accounts Committee's Report identified a number of issues with the Ports Development Project that warranted further investigations.
While most would have agreed that the project was needed, there were concerns from the inception about the secrecy surrounding it.
More allegations of wrongdoing
In December 2015, a former developer of the project, Hugh Edison Darley, President of IDEA Inc., accused the National Democratic Party (NDP) of perverting the process of the project’s development and causing it to balloon far beyond what it would have cost originally to build.
He is also accused the government of not honouring their licencing obligations for the use of his designs some of which they changed in an effort to “cheapen” the project. He had planned to sue the government for monies owed to him.
The bombshell came on January 25, 2016, however, when Minister for Communications and Works Honourable Mark H. Vanterpool (R4) disclosed that the total cost of the ports project was $82.9 million, meaning that the project had overshot its budget by more than $40M.
Despite these revelations, Governor Duncan in March last year decided against a COI, saying that the reports of corruption by the PAC and the Auditor did not provide enough evidence.
“In March last year, I announced my decision not to hold a Commission of Inquiry into the extension of the Cruise Pier. My public statement sets out the reasons why I reached that decision, I will not go into detail again today; suffice to say that this was a problem I inherited and regrettably the reports by both the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee were deficient, requiring further investigation by the Caribbean Development Bank and an independent investigation funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Despite four separate investigations no evidence of wrongdoing was discovered,” Governor Duncan stated at a press conference at the Governor’s Residence on August 19, 2016.
Gov’t investigating self
Also, in January of this year, Premier Smith made a surprise announcement when he said he had ordered an investigation into the allegations of corruption on the Cruise Development Project.
“As you know since the cruise pier project began a few years ago there has been quite a lot of discussion about it and in order to be able to be transparent I decided to do an audit. I do not want to continue to be listening to rumours which are totally false and this is why that I want to put everything to rest.”
Premier Smith added that he was not yet ready to disclose the name of the company doing the audit but said that it was an international company.
And while the Opposition has criticised the Government for “investigating itself”, Governor Duncan at the press conference last week, commended the Premier for his decision.
“In the summer of last year further allegations emerged about the Cruise Pier Village project. After lengthy discussions with the Premier and Cabinet Ministers, the Premier, as Minister of Finance, has engaged an independent and respected company to carry out an audit. The report should be available in the coming weeks. In my view this is an example of the Government taking its responsibilities properly,” Governor Duncan said.
Reiterating that no evidence of corruption was found after four investigations, two of which he said were deficient, Governor Duncan said it is his job to take that decision to evaluate the evidence and that it was “not in my view conducive to continually spend money on further and further investigations when you have no evidence, therefore I took that decision not to have that Commission of Inquiry.
“Rumour is one thing, evidence is another. You cannot conduct business on the basis of no evidence. People can make all sorts of allegations but no evidence was found after four separate investigations,” Governor Duncan stated.
24 Responses to “Rumour is one thing, evidence is another- Governor Duncan”
Sick of the Governor bout now
Many still have not recovered, but the bankers were bailed out by the same government who was supposed to be looking out for its citizens. The worst part of it, is that, they were bailed out without any consequences and today has become even wealthier and more powerful than before. The next financial collapse to come is inevitable. When the lesson has not been learned, it is bounded to be repeated. The bark of self-absorbed and self-centered politicians and their special interests does not reflect the reality of the majority of the people.
It appears Hypocrisy will never end once we are bounded by man-made systems. Just as slavery was once legal, we heard you. What starts wrong will surely end wrong. A leopard never changes its spots, even down to its last fight.
This man needs to just enjoy his socialite statue and practices quietly, and just leave when his time is up. Some of our present issues have come about because he failed to understand (or disinterested) on how to scan the environment that he finds himself presently living in at the moment. It will surely be a needed CHANGE for our environment when he leaves. All he does is remind us of unwanted Sargassum weed. Good riddance in advance.