A report detailing an official investigation into whether $500,000 in stamp duty went unpaid may have been completed in March 2010, but Premier Ralph O’Neal can’t say when it will be made public, he said at last week’s House of Assembly sitting.
“To date I have not received a copy of the report,” Mr. O’Neal said last Thursday in response to a question from Opposition Leader Dr. Orlando Smith.
Former Governor David Pearey said in a statement in August 2010 that most of the report would be made public “at the next convenient sitting” of the HOA. According to Mr. Pearey’s statement, however, two appendices of the report were to remain unpublished. Those sections were “with the attorney general to consider whether further action might be appropriate to recover unpaid duty,” Mr. Pearey said in the statement, adding later that to publish those sections “would be a breach of the confidential evidence taken during the inquiry, which was conducted in private.”
Cabinet had already seen the report’s recommendations at that time, according to Mr. Peary’s statement.
Publication of the report appeared on the following HOA agenda, but Mr. O’Neal moved to have it removed, and the House voted in agreement.
See the Aug. 18, 2011 edition for full coverage.