The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Commissioner of Police Leamond Deleveaux said an investigation into the alleged misuse of funds in the Small Home Repairs Programme under the Minnis administration is ongoing, a year after telling reporters the investigation was 80 percent complete and that the public should hear the outcome “shortly”.

Mr Deleveaux, in an interview with The Tribune, did not give a clear reason behind the delay in its completion.

In August 2023, he told reporters that the investigation was “very close to being resolved,” adding: “I expect very shortly to come back to you and tell you what the results are.”

“A whole lot of witnesses have to be seen. We don’t put a time limit on investigations. We have to do investigations properly. So once we get information, we’re going to check the information out, and once it’s checked out, then we’ll make a determination.”

The housing repair programme, launched by the Minnis administration in February 2020, aimed to help residents of Abaco and Grand Bahama repair homes damaged by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. The initiative provided vouchers for building materials and other essential items.

In September 2023, police officers from New Providence travelled to Grand Bahama to interview several employees of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) as part of a criminal investigation. The Tribune understands that non-DRA employees were also interviewed. An official, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to discuss the matter, said the investigation was broad in scope and not nearing completion.

The investigation, following a forensic audit into the DRA, had continued to put pressure on officials connected to the former Minnis administration. Some of them hired lawyers as the Royal Bahamas Police Force considers whether to file charges.

The Small Home Repairs Programme investigation was among several police launched after the 2021 general election without revealing conclusions. Police questioned former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis early last year as part of their investigation into his administration’s food assistance programme.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis accused an unnamed non-profit organisation of going on a spending spree, buying two high-end trucks and boats with public funds that were meant to provide food assistance during the pandemic.

That was one of several criticisms Mr Davis made about the programme since taking office in 2021.

He also said his administration had struggled to determine how the $53m issued to the National Food Distribution Taskforce was spent.