Executive director sent on leave

Jun 03, 2011 News

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The Caribbean Community (Caricom)’s premier agency for detection of serious crime is itself under investigation for suspected wrongdoing, and its Executive Director, Lynne Anne Williams, has been sent on leave while the probe continues.
The regional organization in question is the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), and the Caricom Secretariat on Wednesday announced that Ms Williams will proceed on immediate leave and there will be a ‘special purpose audit’ of the agency.
“Following the completion of this audit, full financial audits of that institution covering the period from its establishment in 2006 to 2010 will be undertaken.
“The executive director of Impacs, Ms Lynne Anne Williams, will proceed on leave, with immediate effect, for the duration of the audit. Mr Francis Forbes, a former commissioner of police of Jamaica and security adviser to the Caricom secretary general, and currently adviser Security Crime and Liaison at Impacs, has been identified to head the agency in the interim,” the Secretariat stated
But despite the announcement from Caricom being made just two days ago, this issue reaches back to April 17 when the Trinidad Express newspaper broke a report alleging that the Executive Director and others at IMPACS has been involved in misappropriation of funds, fraudulent accounting, tampering with documents, and employing persons unqualified for certain jobs.
Based on reports from various Caribbean media organizations, two Caricom senior politicians – Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Antigua and Barbuda’s National Security and Labour Minister, Dr Errol Cort – reacted almost immediately to the allegations.
“Should the allegations be true, it is indeed cause for grave concern,” said Mrs Persad-Bissessar, adding that she intends to raise the issue with regional leaders and call for an investigation into the agency’s operations.
She was further quoted as saying, “Corruption of any kind is a cancer eating away at the heart of every person who should benefit from projects since every dollar corruptly taken means one dollar less for the benefit of people; and it would be even more appalling for an organisation charged with responsibility for assisting in the fight against crime to, itself, be ensnared in criminal activity.”
Minister Cort, who chairs the Caricom Council for National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) which holds responsibility for IMPACS, said one day after the Express report that it is important that the public has confidence in the agency responsible for overseeing the region’s crime and security matters.
“To this end and in light of the allegations, I shall recommend to the Bureau of CONSLE that a comprehensive financial audit, to include a detailed review of internal procedures and policies, be carried out at IMPACS,” he said.
The Bureau agreed to a probe, which was regarded as a preliminary investigation.
But the Express newspaper was not done with IMPACS. Before the probe could begin, that publication stated that reports coming out of the Agency indicated that documents were being removed and/or sanitized.
CONSLE Chairman Dr Cort was questioned on the matter and he reportedly told the newspaper that his checks with the agency revealed that was not the case. That probe was completed towards the end of May.
The report of that investigation was presented to CONSLE members during its first special meeting of the Council at Caricom headquarters in Turkeyen on Tuesday, stemming from which the Caricom Secretariat issued the media release announcing the special-purpose audit, and the Executive Director going on leave.
Following the Trinidad Express’ news story, IMPACS promptly issued a statement: “The Caricom Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) categorically denounces the allegations levelled against it and its Executive Director in the Sunday Express dated April 17, 2011. The legal implications of this matter are now being considered in the appropriate quarters,” the regional body stated.”
The Trinidad-based organization said it has “and continues to adhere to the management and operational procedures as approved by CONSLE and set out in the agreement establishing the Caricom Implementation for Crime and Security 2006.
“Its accountability to this governance structure continues to be demonstrated during its routine operations and as was evident during the hosting of the International Cricket World Cup Tournament 2007, the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government in 2009 and the ICC World Cup T20 – in 2010,” IMPACS stated.
Prior to the Express report, the agency recently failed an institutional assessment conducted by the European Union (EU) when IMPACS sought to secure a multi-million-dollar grant to fund a regional security project, that newspaper reported.
The EU report was examined by CONSLE at its Tuesday meeting.
“In this regard, the
Caricom Secretariat was requested to assist IMPACS with respect to ensuring internationally accepted standards in the areas of accounting, auditing, internal control, procurement and human resources management systems,” the secretariat revealed.
Established in 2006 to, among other things, provide security services for World Cup cricket hosted by the region the following year, IMPACS describes its function as follows: IMPACS and its sub agencies, the Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (RIFC) and Joint Regional Communications Centre (JRCC) are specifically geared towards strategic research, program and project implementation, evaluation, analysis and mobilization of resources to support the collective fight against serious crime and to counter other security threats in the Region.

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