VI News Staff 2 years ago
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COI Report: Consider doing criminal probe against Premier’s Office

The Commission of Inquiry (COI) report has called for officials to look into the possibility of a criminal probe into the obstruction meted out to the Auditor General’s (AG) office by the Premier’s Office during an audit of the COVID-19 assistance grant programmes.

In June last year, Auditor General Sonia Webster issued a damning audit report which outlined a plethora of infractions committed by the then Andrew Fahie-led administration. She detailed several areas where there had been outright attempts to block the audit exercise itself.

According to the COI report issued by Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom, those obstructions to the Auditor General is not presently a criminal offence.

But he recommended that consideration be given to amending the Audit Act to make failing to cooperate with the Auditor General, without a legitimate excuse, a criminal offence.

At the very least, a failure by a public officer or any employee of a statutory board to cooperate with auditors without reasonable excuse should be treated as gross misconduct, Sir Gary said.

“Furthermore, in my view, given the ease with which the Premier’s Office defeated the Auditor General’s attempt to audit the COVID-19 Assistance programmes, the sanctions for a failure to cooperate with an Auditor General’s investigation and audit require strengthening.

The report offered two specific recommendations related to this particular issue.

First, Sir Gary said: “I recommend that the appropriate BVI authorities consider whether a criminal investigation should be held into the conduct of the Premier’s Office in obstructing the Director of the Internal Audit Department in respect of her audit of the COVID-19 Assistance Programmes.”

Secondly, Sir Gary stated, “I recommend that consideration should be given by the Governor as to whether an investigation, to be conducted by an independent person or persons, should be held into the conduct of the Premier’s Office in obstructing the Auditor General in respect of her audit of the COVID-19 Assistance Programmes.”

READ MORE: BVI NEWS

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