By Vernon Daley, Parliamentary Reporter
RONALD THWAITES, attorney-at-law and former MP for Central Kingston, is insisting that he had received written instructions to collect money on behalf of the Post and Telecommunications Department.
"How could I have collected the money without being instructed?" Mr. Thwaites asked during an interview with The Gleaner last Thursday.
According to him, he was instructed both orally and in writing to collect outstanding Spectrum Licence Fees on behalf of the department after several meetings with senior officials. When pressed to substantiate his claims, Mr. Thwaites said he was not at liberty to disclose documents which formed part of the arrangement with his client.
Excerpts of a report from Auditor-General, Adrian Strachan, tabled in Parliament last week, said there was no written agreement giving Mr. Thwaites the authorisation to collect outstanding sums on behalf of the Post and Telecommunications Department.
Mr. Strachan's report quoted a letter dated July 5, 2002 from Postmaster General Dr. Blossom O'Meally-Nelson to Permanent Secretary in the then Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Dr. Jean Dixon which stated:
"The Postal Corporation of Jamaica had no arrangement of any sort with Mr. Thwaites or his company ... there were no written instructions to Mr. Thwaites' company to collect outstanding licence fee on behalf of the Post and Telecommunications Department."
The excerpts of the Auditor-General's report was tabled in the House of Representatives by Commerce, Science and Technology Minister Phillip Paulwell in response to questions posed by Opposition spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw.
According to the Auditor-General, a statement of account dated November 20, 2000 was prepared by Mr. Thwaites which showed that the total amount collected on behalf of the Post and Telecommunications Department was just over $10 million and that all had been remitted to the department.
Mr. Thwaites became embroiled in deep controversy last year after political pollster Mark Wignall wrote in a column in The Observer newspaper that a senior PNP official had fraudulently converted millions of dollars collected by his company on behalf of the Post and Telecommunications Department.
Although he was not named in the column, Mr. Thwaites appeared on the Nationwide news programme on Power 106 radio station on June 27 to defend himself. He subsequently resigned as MP for Central Kingston as other allegations of financial impropriety arose.
However, in a recent interview, the Auditor-General told The Gleaner that he had found no evidence that the prominent attorney-at-law and Roman Catholic deacon, had attempted to defraud the Post and Telecommunications Department.
"There is no evidence based on what we saw that fraud was involved, Mr. Strachan said. But obviously errors were made by the lawyer (Mr. Thwaites) in how the thing was lodged," Mr. Strachan had said.
At the same time, the Auditor-General chastised the Bank of Nova Scotia for permitting two cheques made out to the Post and Telecommunications Department to be lodged to the account of Mr. Thwaites' law firm Daly Thwaites and Company.
"It is most surprising that the Bank of Nova Scotia allowed this to be done," the Auditor-General said.
