P.U.P. Says It Will Investigate Brads Contract

John Briceño

Opposition Leader John Briceño says that legal advice is being sought to overturn the Brads contract and launch a forensic audit to determine if a criminal offence was committed.

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

 “The P.U.P. believes that this requires a forensic audit, if elected to Government we will initiate a detailed forensic audit to reveal whether any wrong doing was committed in the award of these contracts. Further we intended to take legal advice to see whether we can reverse Brads contract. If this can be done, and we hope that it can be done the next P.U.P. government will pass the necessary law to direct the proceeds of the lotteries to charitable organizations involved in education and health and to support sports.”

Eamon Courtenay

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for P.U.P.

“He has called for a forensic audit. I have advised that the government is entitled to commence a forensic audit into any project including the award to contract to Brads. This can be done by engaging professionals expert who have expertise in forensic audits We have already identified companies who have done this type of work in the Caribbean. Additional, the government can invoke the Commission of Inquiry Act. Under this act the Prime Minister can appoint expert commissioners to inquire into the Brads contracts. The terms of reference to be given to such a commission can be as wide and as all encompassing as is needed to ensure that all aspects of these transactions including whether the tender was lawful, how money flowed after the awards of the contracts, who all benefited from these contracts and to report on any wrongdoing. Any such report from a commissioner of inquiry will be handed over to the office of Director of Public Prosecution to determine whether any criminal wrongdoing has been committed. This is a fundamental breach of the Finance and Audit Reform Act. It begs the questions, why were these documents not disclosed. Based on our preliminary research this noncompliance with the public disclosure requirement with the Finance and Audit Reform Act calls into question the very legality of the Brads Contract. If the government is to be believe they awarded the Brads contract to a company that was majority owned by Good Lee Limited, an offshore company. According to the government it does not know who owns Good Lee. This is remarkable. This is alarming but as the Party Leader said we do not believe them.   Violation of the Finance and Audit Reform Act is a criminal offence. The documents we have seen shows movements of monies that strongly suggest that the Financial Intelligence Unit should be asked to make appropriate investigations to discover whether there was any violation of law. From the documents we have seen, the size of the transactions suggest that suspicious transaction reports should have been filed by the F.I.U. by local financial institutions.”