ROADTOWN Tortola, BVI, April 7th 2011 - According to a press release from the Governor’s Office issued yesterday Tuesday, April 5, 2011, Governor Boyd McCleary revealed the findings of the investigation which was undertaken by Mr. Georges.

An investigation was requested by the Governor on March 4, 2011 into how a letter from Mr. Colin Roberts, Director Overseas Territories, Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), addressed to the Premier, Hon. Ralph T. O’Neal, OBE appeared in the public domain.

The press release stated, “the Governor’s Office would like to confirm that the Governor has received Mr. Georges’ Report  The Report has established that the letter was passed by hand from the Governor’s Office to the Premier’s Office.  It arrived safely in the Premier’s Office and was recorded as having been received on the day it was passed.  Staff in the Premier’s Office reported that they sent it on to the BVI House in London, but the Director of BVI House (who was in Prague at the time) has no record of having received it. On the basis of the electronic records available, the investigation could not determine what went wrong with that exchange.

“The Report establishes that the letter was not marked as Restricted or Confidential and was thus not afforded particular protection. It was stored in an open manner and was seen by a number of public officers, which made it impossible to identify whether / how / by whom it might have been leaked.

“To quote Mr Georges: “My overall conclusion is that the letter from Colin Roberts could have been leaked to a member of the public by any one of a number of persons (12 or more) who had access over a period of months, particularly to the hard copy. I have not been able to establish from this investigation if this document was leaked and, if so, by whom.”

Mr. Georges has recommended that a review of document security be undertaken, with special attention being paid to electronic data management. The Governor has accepted Mr. Georges’ recommendation.

The Governor is grateful to Mr. Georges for having carried out this investigation.

Although the report has been unable to identify the source of the apparent leak, weaknesses in handling procedures have been identified, lessons have been learned and stronger procedures will be put in place for the passing of such correspondence between the Governor’s Office and the wider BVI administration more securely in the future.

Mr. Georges report deals with matters relating to the security of official documents.

It will not be made available to the public.

Article taken from Virgin Islands News Online

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