| Bryant seeks U.K. funds | | Print | |
| Friday, 09 April 2010 09:12 | |||
 Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant is trying to get U.K. funding for the team investigating alleged government corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands, but that money would have to be repaid with recovered assets of those prosecuted. That’s what Bryant told Parliament’s House of Commons when asked Tuesday, April 6, about a Foreign Affairs Committee report that criticizes the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for forcing the TCI to pay for the investigation recommended by a Commission of Inquiry last year. “We need to make sure that there is a full investigation conducted, and that’s why I’m working very closely with colleagues in the Department for International Development to see whether there’s a means of making sure that the investigation team has its money and so it can get on and find out the truth which is sorely needed in TCI, and that the monies would then be returned once assets have been sequestered as a result of the criminal investigations,” Bryant said. Bryant has said that the U.K. government believes that corrupt TCI politicians are responsible for the financial crisis in the country and that the TCI should pay for the investigation and recovery of the country’s assets that may have been illegally taken. The FAC disagreed in its March 31 report, saying that the U.K. government and the FCO should pay for the investigation because they failed to properly oversee the elected government and allowed the situation to get out of hand. Also, forcing the TCI to pay at a time when it is struggling to meet its normal operating expenses has already hindered the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team and put more financial strain on the government, public servants and citizens. Both SIPT lead prosecutor Helen Garlick and Sir Robin Auld, head of the Commission of Inquiry that recommended suspension and investigation of the government last year, said the failure of the U.K. to fund the investigation was eroding support for His Excellency the Gov. Gordon Wetherell and would cause further financial hardship for the country. Both Garlick and Auld have implored the U.K. to provide the money to finance the investigation and needed reforms. Without that, a return to elected government next year is “unrealistic,” the FAC predicted. “If elections proceed on this timetable, there is a real danger of a return to the status quo ante, and the possibility that politicians against whom serious allegations of corruption are pending could seek to return to power,” the FAC said. But on April 6, Bryant reiterated the need for a quick return of rule to the people of the TCI. “We do however need to return as fast as possible to elections in TCI because otherwise I think people would think that this was just a return to colonial rule,” he said. On Wednesday, the governor reiterated that “instructions come to us from the FCO.” “The objective is to have those elections taking place in July of next year. That would be on the basis that there are adequate foundations in terms of possible revision of the constitution, the enactment of the appropriate legislation, the general reform process is in place to provide the necessary competence for all the relevant audiences, the TCI themselves, the U.K. and the international community, those key problems identified in the report for which the order in council was instituted in the 1st place, the appropriate checks and balances are there.
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