By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE BETTING Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) has fired Charles Ganga-Singh, its legal officer.
Mr. Ganga-Singh has expressed shock at his dismissal and insists he had not committed any breaches or professional misconduct.
"I have not done anything that my job description did not authorise me to do," Mr. Ganga-Singh said when contacted yesterday. He is the second executive member of the BGLC to be dismissed in the past three months.
However, Mr. Howard Mollison, acting chairman of the BGLC, said yesterday that Mr. Ganga-Singh was dismissed because of "irreconcilable loss of trust and confidence."
Patrick Hall, the chief accountant, was fired in August after he failed to attend an investigative meeting on August 28.
Hall was dismissed on the basis of investigations by the Audit Committee of the board which, allegedly, revealed that a yearly incentive was paid to Hall and the workers without deduction of the taxes and statutory deductions prescribed by the tax laws. The Commission said Hall's failure to make the deductions resulted in the Commission having to pay out $14 million in taxes, penalties and interest.
Hall, who is being represented by attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, of the law firm Knight Pickersgill Dowding and Samuels, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court on September 17 which bars the BGLC from filling the post of chief accountant until the Judicial Review Court has heard Hall's motion to quash the Commission's order firing him.
Mr. Mollison explained that Mr. Ganja-Singh was dismissed because of "irreconcilable loss of trust and confidence." He said Mr. Ganga-Singh had provided "simultaneously" to the Commissioners and Mr. Hall his opinion on an injunction which Mr. Hall obtained in the Supreme Court. Mr. Mollison also referred to a case in which Mr. Ganga-Singh withdrew charges of illegal bookmaking and unlawful gaming. He said the Board was not satisfied with the explanation which Mr. Ganga-Singh gave for withdrawing the charges.
Mollison also added that Mr. Ganga-Singh would receive any emoluments due to him by Friday.
Ganga-Singh has been the legal officer of the BGLC for 12 months.
