Erica Virtue, Staff ReporterThe forensic audit of Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) ordered by Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies eight months ago is yet to be completed, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.
The audit was ordered, following the findings of a special report by Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) Governor Derrick Latibeaudiere, which uncovered a trail of mismanagement at the horse-racing facility in St. Catherine.
Mr. Latibeaudere's findings also drew on the results of an audit which was conducted by Auditor General Adrian Strachan.
However, close to nine months after the audit was ordered, the Ministry said it remains incomplete. Responding to queries from The Sunday Gleaner said, the Ministry's information officer Cordel Graham said as soon as it was completed it would be released.
The response, however, has drawn the ire of Opposition Spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw, who led the Jamaica Labour Party's call for the findings to be made public. On Friday, Mr. Shaw called the Ministry's response, "nothing more than delaying tactics."
"I have asked the Minister of Finance in Parliament to make these reports public. That is the audit, and the special report by the BoJ's Governor. The Minister, for whatever reason has resisted my requests," Mr. Shaw said Friday.
According to him, if the Minister fails to make the findings public, he will use Parliament to get the responses.
"I am prepared to table in Parliament, the questions that I have been seeking answers to, for almost a year," he said.
He said this incomplete audit would make three for which findings are outstanding and for which he intends to seek answers. His disappointment, that the audit was incomplete, is shared by Vincent Edwards of the Jamaica Race Horse Trainers Association (JRHTA).
"We are all waiting for the report. When they are finished, I expect that we will know every inch of Caymanas Park," he said Friday.
He said also, that, the trainers could not be blamed for assuming that the findings have found that things were worse than the first audit, and the BoJ Governor's special report.
The BoJ Governor's findings noted that CEO, Rose Campbell, as a director at CTL, a company she operated, presented nine bounced cheques totalling $2.1 million to the horse racing body between the period of 1996 and 1999. His report said however, that Ms. Campbell has made restitution.
However, the Auditor-General comments were that, "It is disturbing that a firm - the principal of which was a director at CTL should have issued so many bounced cheques."
The Auditor-General also raised concern over what he said was the free handover of money, nearly one million dollars, by CTL to causes associated with politicians and political parties. He questioned the criteria used to approve such donations and said the practise should be discontinued.
The central bank Governor also said that the board members who voted to fire the CEO, should not be removed from their positions.
