Government is moving to repeal the Statutory Authorities Service Commission (SASC) Act and abolish the SASC since it has not sent two National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) managers on leave for Government to do an audit concerning alleged improprieties at NLCB, Finance Minister Colm Imbert has said.
At yesterday's post-Cabinet media briefing, Imbert said Government's attempts to undertake the audit have been blocked since the SASC, which the two people were subject to, had not sent to them on leave.
He said allegations had been made about them and the new NLCB Board had reported there "seems to be a prima facie case" of conflict of interest regarding the two senior managers. He noted certain media reports on the issue.
"At this stage it is allegations. No one has been found guilty," he admitted.
Imbert said the matter concerned alleged requests for donations from NLCB and the beneficiaries of those donations.
He said the NLCB Board felt it necessary to write to the SASC to request action against the two people and that they be sent on leave for the board to do an independent audit, going back several years, to probe the allegations.
Imbert said the board wrote SASC sending along supporting documents indicating the Finance Ministry's Audit Division would do the NLCB audit and asked SASC to have the two people sent on leave so a proper forensic audit could be done.
He said that was over a month ago and the SASC had not acted on the information so the two people were still at NLCB and would present more conflict of interest if the audit occurred while they were there. He said it was not standard practice for such a situation to occur.
Imbert said the Prime Minister also asked for Finance's Audit Division to audit NLCB but he said the SASC was an independent body appointed by the President and the matter was therefore out of Government's hands. "We can't do anything," he added.
Saying a large sum of money was involved in the allegations, he added Government would, therefore, move on a decision of many years ago to repeal the SASC Act, abolish the SASC, allowing the public service to do its functions and deal with matters of that nature. (GA)