Penn frowns at $10 million ‘slush fund’ under Fahie administration

Former Premier Andre Fahie

(JTV News) – Minister of Health Marlon A. Penn has slammed the previous Andre Fahie-led government, accusing the for mer Premier, who is under house arrest on drugs charges in the US, for allegedly putting up a $10 million reserved slush fund — money that can be used for anything from illegal activities to political activities.

Penn made the comments while he and other legislators debated the Internal Audit Department’s report on Assistance Grants for 2019-2022 under Fahie’s government administration.

Penn accused Fahie of ignoring the Public Finance Management regulations and legislative frameworks where procurement processes are required for projects valued above $10,000.

Sounding obviously disappointed, Penn told the House how various amounts of money over the audit period was disbursed by Fahie despite the fact that other legisltors struggled to get funding for infrastructural works and school repairs in their communities.

He said this was evidence of the “slush fund” corruption.

The Internal Audit Report states that the Premier’s Office, led by the former Premier expended $10,717,262.59 under its Assistance Grants Programme.

“There was a notable increase in both budgeted amounts and expenditure within the programme when compared to prior years. Upon inquiry with the Ministry of Finance as to the reason for the significant increases in budgetary allocation for the programme, we were informed that the increase was made on the basis of direct request by the former Premier and Minister of Finance but could not provide a clear basis for the request for increase in budgetary allocation,” the report stated.

These significant increases were described by the audit report as an abuse of the budgetary process and that the way the increases were derived lacked proper justification and transparency and constituted an abuse of ministerial authority.
The report also revealed that the programme had more than one thousand disbursements and more than 400 transactions of $10,000 and above; representing over $8 million and nearly $20,000 per disbursement.