The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

A KEY witness in former Labour Minister Shane Gibson's criminal case told investigators that Jonathan Ash "got all of his payments" from the government.

This revelation follows Attorney General Carl Bethel's confirmation on Tuesday that Mr Ash was still receiving instalment payments from the government for debts the Minnis administration met on its books.

Wayne Munroe, counsel for Mr Gibson, yesterday told The Tribune documents disclosed by the Crown to his legal team during the discovery phase did not show that Mr Ash was still owed money.

He said the defence is prepared to ask for a complete listing of bills still being honoured by the government.

The issue was thrust into the spotlight this week after a document purportedly itemising payments to Ash Enterprises went viral on social media earlier this week.

While the document purports to show five payments of $30,000 since April to Ash Enterprises totaling $150,000, it does not name the company or describe what the payments were for. Its origin is unclear, but Mr Bethel confirmed its contents on Tuesday.

However, the witness' admission has called into question the purpose of the payments.

Deborah Bastian, then personal assistant to Mr Gibson made the admission about Mr Ash receiving full payment to Assistant Superintendent Thompson in transcripts of audio recordings from September 25, 2017.

In these transcripts, both she and Mr Ash were giving their account of a meeting with the former minister over money owed to Mr Ash who had several lucrative contracts for clean up in New Providence in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

At this same meeting, Ms Bastian also reveals to Mr Gibson an earlier admission from Mr Ash that he paid former Chief Engineer Rahman "something out of the deal".

Their attorneys Alecia Bowe and Raymond Rolle were also at the meeting.

At the time, Mr Ash and Ms Bastian had discussed forgoing one tranche of payment for $250,000 allegedly to give to Mr Gibson.

"And in your mind you was saying to forgo the payment cuz y'all were gonna work him," ASP Thompson said.

Ms Bastian then responded: "Yeah. No. Let me go back to forgoing. And I explained it to Ash. I said rather than you getting paid for four weeks, you getting paid for three weeks. When Ash called me back that day, Ash told me, 'Simon tell me tell you send all of my payments. I ain't forgoing nothing. Send all of my payments to him and he ga pay me.

"I said, 'No problem.' I was saying, but I can't see them paying him but I ga send it anyhow. I sent all of Ash payments forward to Minister Gibson, Jack Thompson, Simon Wilson and it was paid. So he didn't forgo any payment. He got all of his payments."

According to Mr Munroe, the government must now produce the bills and show documentation of the payments.

He further questioned whether any work was done by Mr Ash for the government, noting the new VAT rate had been attached to payments for July and August.

"He (the AG) has admitted to the payments and that's not surprising since a whistleblower has clearly disclosed that they are still paying him," Mr Munroe said. "So they couldn't really deny it, right?"

"Now the question is do you believe his account of the payment?

"I am told that the VAT shown on this invoice is at 12 per cent. We know that VAT at 12 per cent only came in under the FNM and so the last two can only be services rendered after the new rate of VAT. Now bearing in mind that the old 7.5 per cent rate was the VAT for the first year of the FNM.

"From the documents that they disclosed to us in the criminal matter Ash wasn't owed any money based on those documents and those documents as far as I can recall went all the way up until the general election.

"So I really can't see how they could say this is old debt unless they haven't been honest in their disclosure."

He continued: "But since this admission has come out we need now to go back and revisit whether they have made complete and accurate disclosure because if there was a sum that was owed the records they gave us surely doesn't show it.

"They ought to produce the bills. They ought to show documentation that shows payments of the bills. They believe in transparency. We certainly will ask for them," Mr Munroe said.

Responding, Mr Bethel said Mr Munroe knows the proper legal forum if he has questions or issues on behalf of his client. He maintained this was not a public matter, adding his response on Tuesday to the viral document was answering to an innuendo being put on social media.

Mr Bethel said it was a matter that would undoubtedly be raised in court and to "parley" the issue in public would be improper.