Verdicts in SIPT corruption trial a “sad and sobering moment” for Turks and Caicos Islands, says Anglican Bishop
The verdicts in the recently concluded corruption trial in Turks and Caicos Islands were a “sad and sobering moment” for the country, said The Right Reverend Laish Boyd, the Anglican
Delivering his annual charge at the Opening Eucharist of the 120th Session of the Synod, in Christ Church Cathedral, Nassau, The Bahamas on Monday, October 16th, 2023, Bishop Boyd said: “The first charges were brought in 2011 and a lengthy trial ensued. The first of two cases recently concluded and sentences passed down on two former politicians while two others were acquitted. It is a sad and sobering moment over which we all grieve – no matter which political party we support or no matter our opinion about who is guilty or who is not. In this process the British government spent about $80 million dollars of the Turks and Caicos Islands money on this process so far. Friends, we know that there was wrongdoing, and I am not here to comment on who is guilty and who is not. That is not my place or role. There is an investigative and judicial process that does that. However, I note that it is a sad and sobering moment for the country.”
On Thursday, October 12th, 2023, Chief Justice Her Ladyship Mabel Agyemang sentenced former Turks and Caicos Islands deputy premier Floyd Hall to one year in prison for bribery, while attorney Clayton Greene was given a six-month prison sentence for money laundering.
They are both on bail pending their appeal.
Noting that the country’s constitution was suspended in 2009 following a commission of inquiry, and the British government then exercised direct rule until a new constitution was in place in 2012, Bishop Boyd said that “much reorganization and improvement of systems and processes has gone on and today the Turks and Caicos Islands is a more efficiently run entity with better controls and accountability in place and in use or practice.
He added: “Here in the Bahamas we can learn from this. The Turks and Caicos Islands even had a budget surplus of $53 million in the 2022 financial year. I am of the view that, given the level and pervasiveness of malpractice and corruption, the British government had no choice but to suspend the constitution and to engage in direct rule. They did the right thing. But in the face of all the wrongdoing no British official brought before the courts and charged. I am of the view that some of them had to know about and/or overlooked what was going on, if not actually complicit in the wrongdoing.”
