Former Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Lanisha Rolle borrowed $300,000 from a credit union to purchase a $225,000 property in gated Western New Providence community Lake Cunningham Estates and build a spacious multi-level house valued at over $800,000, according to an investigation by the Gallery.
It is unclear how the swift construction of the home is being funded as very little of the $300,000 borrowed by Rolle would’ve been left over after the embattled Seabreeze MP spent $225,000 on the property and legal fees.
Neighbors tell the Gallery construction is moving so rapidly on lot # 65, it’s as if the house practically sprung up out of the ground overnight.
But how did the former minister pay for construction and building materials for a nearly million-dollar home on an MP’s annual salary of $28,000, a cabinet minister’s salary of $66,000 and $5,000 duty allowance?
According to Rolle’s public disclosure form submitted ahead of the 2017 General Election, the attorney was earning an annual salary of $65,054 before entering politics and had just over $4,000 in the bank.
Rolle’s finances and her ability to afford a pricy palace out West have become the subject of intense public scrutiny following a damning forensic audit of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture which revealed mismanagement of public funds and that government protocol was not followed in the issuance of contracts.
After Rolle tendered her resignation to Governor General C. A. Smith instead of Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, which is highly unusual, Cabinet Office announced that certain matters brought to the prime minister’s attention are “under investigation”.
The Gallery has been informed that the investigation is already complete and was damning enough for Rolle to resign and not receive another nomination from the Free National Movement in the upcoming General Election.
However, Minnis is simply buying time.
Rolle, who also resigned as an FNM senator in 2016 over a recorded conversation with political activist Lincoln Bain, had been viewed as a Minnis loyalist until their apparent falling out over this latest scandal.
Rolle, who was the only woman in the Minnis cabinet, was moved to Youth, Sports and Culture after she failed to get along with staff at the Ministry of Social Service where she was appointed minister in 2017.