Two Anti-Corruption Unit officers, who are staunch Free National Movement supporters, refuse to open investigations into the corrupt acts of several prominent FNMs despite spearheading political witch hunts against former PLP MPs.
The police anti-corruption unit, which was formed in 2017, to persecute former Progressive Liberal Party rushed to bring trumped up corruption charges against Shane Gibson, Frank Smith and Kenred Dorsett soon after the PLP’s defeat at the polls.
Matthew Edgecombe and Jared Turnquest actively searched for virtual complainants, who they strong-armed to file complaints against Former Public Hospitals Authority Chairman Frank Smith and former cabinet ministers Ken Dorsett and Shane Gibson. Smith and Gibson were acquitted of all charges.
The trials and acquittals of Gibson and Smith showed that officers in the unit had resorted to criminal tactics to concoct evidence against them. These tactics ranged from witness coaching to altering phone records.
However, in the face of damning evidence against several FNM MPs, Edgecombe and Turnquest refuse to act.
Turnquest is the best friend of Adrian Gibson, the embattled former executive chairman of Water and Sewerage, who managed to hold onto his seat in the face of corruption claims.
Leaked documents revealed that then-Water and Sewerage Executive Chairman Adrian Gibson’s fiancée and his cousin received hundreds of thousands of dollars in WSC painting and yard maintenance contracts. Gibson admitted to police that he and his fiancée shared a RBC bank account.
An audit of the Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority revealed outrageous overspending and the questionable issuance of contracts to FNM cronies. Multiple contracts were issued to the same people who used different company names.
A separate audit of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture also exposed questionable contracts and overspending under Lanisha Rolle’s leadership. A six-figure painting contract was awarded for a government facility that was never painted.
Then-Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis ordered the Youth, Sports and Culture audit after receiving a litany of complaints from senior government officials but instead of instructing police to initiate an investigation against Rolle, he asked the former Seabreeze MP to resign without giving the public an explanation.
Despite solid evidence of wrongdoing, officers of the Anti-Corruption Unit have gone into hibernation.
It seems that these FNM policemen are protecting their political friends.