AssambaGarwin Davis, Assistant News Editor
THE MINISTRY of Tourism should by now have received a final report from its internal auditor addressing allegations against the Jamaica Tourist Board's (JTB) New York office.
The report, sources say, done by the JTB's chief internal auditor Collin Greenland, will paint a damning picture of corruption, including the use of "shell" companies to milk the JTB out of "huge sums" of money by way of a billing scheme and over an extended period of time.
In addition, the report, they note, will also show the misuse and abuse of taxpayers money totalling millions of dollars. This, includes the use of the JTB's "time and resources" to fund the election campaign of a US politician. Other findings, they note, include the shredding of and attempts to destroy evidence and the exposing of the JTB to US tax evasion laws.
Mr. Greenland had earlier done a preliminary audit which he said, because of its limited scope, required a follow-up. Then Tourism Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who took a lot of flak for not making the preliminary findings public, had said that Auditor General Adrian Strachan had taken over the investigation.
But, Mr. Strachan said that Mr. Greenland was the person still in charge of the investigations into the New York office and that his scope was to determine whether there was any criminal culpability on the part of JTB officials. Asked if he was disturbed by the allegations, or the extent of the evidence, he noted "Yes, I am both disturbed and disappointed."
Tourism and Industry Minister Aloun Assamba confirmed on Wednesday that the report will be completed by "this weekend" and should be available to the Ministry. Mrs. Assamba admitted she had some difficult decisions to make on the matter. "I totally agree with you on that. Until I see the final report, however, I cannot comment any further," she said.
The tough decisions, sources say, is whether criminal charges will be brought against those implicated in the report and what if any steps will be taken by the Government to seek restitutions.
The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it was again reiterating its call for a forensic auditing of the JTB's head office, as well as all the other overseas offices in order to "stem the waste and haemorrhaging" of public funds that had clearly taken place.
According to JLP tourism spokesperson, Edmund Bartlett, the allegations speak volume of the cancer that had engulfed the JTB and the wanton abuse of the agency's resources.
