The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Attorneys for suspended National Insurance Board (NIB) director Algernon Cargill yesterday said they would fight “any negligent misrepresentations” made about their client in the forensic audit report delivered to the Government.

Alfred Sears, the former attorney general, expressing “surprise” that the report by the Grant Thornton accounting firm had not been handed to himself or his client, reiterated concerns about “the transparency and the process” surrounding the exercise.

Again questioning why Mr Cargill was not interviewed by Grant Thornton during the compilation of its report, despite the fact his activities as director would have been a key focus, Mr Sears said: “We reserve the right to challenge any negligent misrepresentations made in the report.

“And, since our client is said to be a subject of the report, we are equally surprised that a copy of the report has not been made available to us.”

Mr Sears added that he was “concerned about not seeing the terms of reference” given to Grant Thornton, which would have governed exactly what they examined at NIB.

When asked by Tribune Business what else concerned himself and Mr Cargill about the whole exercise, Mr Sears replied: “Certainly the transparency and the process.

“It is not only my client but other persons. We need to see it [the report]. When we see it, we will know what will follow.”

Grant Thornton was hired by the Government to conduct a forensic investigation at NIB after the bitter dispute between its then-chairman, PLP Gregory Moss, and Mr Cargill, burst into the public domain.

Both men made serious allegations against each other, via both court documents and letters leaked to the press, with the saga ultimately resulting in Mr Moss’s departure via resignation and Mr Cargill being placed on administrative leave.

Few details have emerged since the Grant Thornton report was presented formally to the Government on Sunday evening.

The only specifics disclosed by Grant Thornton’s Paul ‘Andy’ Gomez, and minister of labour and national insurance, Shane Gibson, were that the NIB Act and regulations needed to be updated, plus recommendations that NIB’s internal auditor report to the Board - not the director.

Mr Gibson went further on Tuesday, telling the media outside Cabinet that the report’s details were “shocking” and “worse than I thought they would be”.

He added: “I think that one thing that is very apparent is the fact that some individuals thought that their position gave them more authority than it did.”

But none of those individuals was named, and again, Mr Gibson gave no specifics on the report’s findings and recommendations.