CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – LEADER of the Opposition in Nevis the Hon. Vance Amory has described the Commission of Inquiry launched yesterday (May 19) as a waste of resources.
Speaking to SKNVibes hours after British Queen’s Counsel Tomas Sharp was sworn in as head of the Commission by Governor-General Sir Cuthbert Sebastian, Amory said he does not believe that the government of a small developing country should spend millions of dollars on a Commission of Inquiry.
“I think it is a waste of resources. I think it does no good to anybody.”
Amory said the investigation is nothing a trained auditor could not handle.
“As I said in the House of Assembly, if there is evidence which the government has…that there has been inappropriate behaviour on the part of anyone in the previous government, whether at the political level or at the level of civil service, if they have the evidence it is not more than a trained auditor could investigate.”
The head of the Concerned Citizen’s Movement (CCM) said government could tell the independent auditor what they were looking for, that they want to find information on X, Y and Z.
“We believe that Mr. So and So did something inappropriate, could you go and look at the books and find that information for us,” he said.
Amory continued: “And when that information has been found then they hand it over. If it is worthy of prosecution, hand it over to the DPP for him to take the necessary action. I’ve told them that many times.”
According to Amory, the question is what the government is hoping to achieve by instituting a Commission of Inquiry. He said he does not know what commission’s powers are apart from to inquire into things.
“I don’t know what their special characteristics are, but if it is a matter of searching for inappropriate behaviour and misappropriations, I am satisfied that an auditor, independent of government – somebody in the Federation – could be handed the books and they could determine whether things were done inappropriately.”
He explained that the auditor could follow the trail just as well, if not better than the Commission would be doing.
The former Premier said chances are if they (the Commission) put something to him and ask if he knew about it, the possibility exists that he could very well not remember because chances are that after some 16 years the government would have closed the books. He explained that the Auditor General would have done his scrutiny and evaluation of government’s fiscal and financial programmes and would have determined whether things were appropriate or inappropriate and signed off on them.
“Where there were questions of inappropriateness, it would be in the auditor’s report which is readily available.”
Amory said he is not worried even though he does not know what they are looking for.
“I can speculate as to what they would like to achieve. They would probably like to put me or whoever on the stand to try and embarrass us, but like I said, we’ll wait and see.”
Tuesday’s swearing in ceremony took place at Government House in Basseterre, St. Kitts. Sworn in along with Sharp was Queen’s Counsel Sir Richard Cheltenham of Barbados who will be the Commission’s Counsel. The Secretariat will be manned by Morrice Tyrell and aided by Myrna Liburd.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Premier Joseph Parry said that when his Nevis Reformation Party took over the government of Nevis some two years ago, part of its mandate was to enquire into the activities of the former administration.
The Premier said the Inquiry would be held in a public forum at the Cultural Centre in Charlestown and would be open to all interested members of the public.
