BIL “Purges” All Financials Beyond the 2019/2020 Period

Julius Espat

According to Minister Espat, the investigation shockingly revealed that records of BIL’s financials were purposely purged – as in destroyed – for the period before 2019/2020. Legally, all companies are required to keep a record of their financials for six years. So, when BIL purged its previous records as they claim they did not have space in its offices, it immediately raised eyebrows. In fact, there is now the prospect of a criminal investigation since the premature disposal of those documents may have constituted an offence.

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development

“We found out that the general manager made purchases, made decisions that could only be decisions that a board would give permission to do or the Ministry of Finance would give permission to do.  We have subsequently seen documentation of past board members that are not aware of major purchases being done by the general manager.  But what was scary, and I would like the auditors, the GST, the Income Tax Department to be aware of, the Financial Intelligence Unit, we asked them for financials of this company and a letter was provided to us stating that they have financials for the year 2019/2020 but they saw it in their interest to purge, that was the word they used, my word would be destroy, it’s the same end result, they found it they found it in their interest to purge and destroy all financials before 2019 because they said they didn’t have space.”