(Trinidad Express) National Security Ministers from the Caricom Council of National Security and Law Enforcement (Consle) will meet next week to discuss and determine the appropriate actions in relation to corruption and misconduct allegations levelled against Caricom Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Impacs) and its executive director Lynne Anne Williams.
A video conference will be the format for the April 29 meeting which will include National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy and his colleagues from Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda.
Antigua and Barbuda National Security Minister and Chair of Consle, Dr Errol Cort, in a text message sent to the Express on Thursday evening, made the disclosure in response to whether he has communicated with other Consle members regarding the allegations.
Cort said, “I can confirm that I have been in written communication with all Caricom Ministers who form part of the Bureau of Consle and that a special meeting (via video conference) has been set for Friday, 29 April to discuss the allegations raised in the article of the 17 of April in the Sunday Express and to determine the most appropriate way forward.
“As stated before, I shall recommend to the Bureau that a comprehensive financial audit be carried out in respect of Impacs. I expect that a press statement will be issued at the conclusion of the Bureau’s meeting,” Cort said in his text message.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, head of regional security at Caricom, has said that the allegations are serious and she intends to raise the matter before Caricom member states in order to institute an audit at the agency.
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan also expressed outrage over the allegations, which he said must be thoroughly investigated and anyone found culpable should feel the full brunt of the law.
Williams has declined to give interviews on the matter and has not accepted calls from the Express.
The allegations, which also include the mismanagement of funds, hiring of unqualified staff at the agency, were highlighted in last weekend’s Sunday Express.
Documentary evidence supplied to this newspaper reveal that in 2010, Williams submitted several invoices for hotel accommodation at a particular location in Barbados, but checks with the Barbadian authorities and other sources in that country revealed that the hotel identified in invoices—Darreyl’s Bungalow Short Term Accommodation—does not exist. Those invoices, employees alleged, were generated at Impacs’ office.
The agency, in a statement yesterday, said that its financial statements for 2007-2009 were never audited, but were presented to the Consle .
Williams was appointed executive director of Impacs with effect from September 1, 2009, at the Twentieth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Belize in March of that year. Williams was also in charge at the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) for 14 years.
