Police: LifeSport probe still active

Lead Editor Investigations

asha.javeed@guardian.co.tt

Ten years after the controversial LifeSport programme ended, it remains an active police investigation.

“The matter is being actively pursued and an update would be provided shortly,” Curt Simon, ACP in charge of the T&T Police Service’s White Collar Division told Guardian Media.

It was reported that a team of forensic experts from the United Kingdom had been in T&T working alongside detectives of the Anti-Corruption Investigative Bureau (ACIB) on the investigation.

In a 2020 Police Status Report on the matter, the TTPS said it had obtained in excess of 25 production orders against individuals and banking organisations and interviewed many witnesses, “which has generated valuable new evidence in support of the allegations.”

“The new evidence has uncovered clear bribes paid to public officials in return for favours and large kickbacks to high-level public officials who were alleged to be at the forefront of the corruption,” the document stated.

“It is alleged that a number of persons from the Ministry of Sport, the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago and contractor companies associated with the delivery of the LifeSport programme were involved in various conspiracies to misappropriate funds allocated to the programme for their own use and benefit.

“A total sum of $349,500,000 was allocated to LifeSport between 2012 and 2014, funded through a combination of budgetary allocations made by the Ministry of Sport and bank loans, done in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and the Economy.

“A significant portion of those funds are alleged to have been misappropriated by many individuals at all levels of the programme. This includes a number of high-ranking public officials allegedly tunnelling millions of dollars out of the programme to purchase real estate, boats, vehicles and to fund weddings, amongst other things,” the document said.

It noted that the police investigation began in 2015 and that one suspect “has been assisting the TTPS with the investigation, providing key information about how the programme was manipulated to enable so many individuals to obtain personal benefits to the detriment of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”

A 2014 audit done by the Ministry of Finance’s Central Audit Committee revealed that the programme has been riddled with financial irregularities; had co-ordinators with criminal backgrounds; massive fraud; millions misspent; ghost centres; ghost participants; improper procurement; and there was major theft of state funds.

While millions were lost in padded invoices to contractors, the $34 million payment to educator Adolphus Daniell to teach numeracy and technology to persons in the programme was the single biggest payment of the programme for no work.

When she laid the report in Parliament, then-former prime minister Persad-Bissessar said she had forwarded a copy of it to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Commissioner of Police, Integrity Commission and head of the Public Service.

Then-Sports Minister Anil Roberts subsequently resigned from the cabinet and as D’Abadie/O’Meara MP on July 31, 2014.

At the time, former LifeSport programme director Cornelius Price had described the audit as “sloppy.”

But former Finance Minister Larry Howai, under whose remit the audit was undertaken, had responded, “I am not aware of the context in which the allegation that the audit was sloppy is being made, but all of the supporting documentation is available to support the various statements that were made in the audit. I expect that a lot of allegations will be made by various persons associated with the programme in a direct or indirect attempt to try to prove their innocence or even to drag as many persons through the mud with them as possible, but the Ministry of Finance and the Economy stands by the results of the audit and the professionalism of the senior officers of the Ministry and its overall position in this matter.”

In 2016, Justice Mira Dean-Armorer ruled that the report should be sent back to the audit team. She did not support the argument that the audit team acted irrationally or in bad faith.

Guardian Media did not get a response on whether the CAC had re-done the audit.

Last week, SporTT won a judgment against the Daniell’s company for $30 million, plus interests and costs.

In October 2016, Daniell had hosted a press conference on the $34 million contract.

Daniell, who is now deceased, had claimed that $34 million was “grossly inadequate” for the time he put into developing the programme. He said he was targeted because in LifeSport he was “too busy closing down corruption.”

“If I lost money, I would know I did my best. Thirty-four million is a jiggle in the piggy bank. That’s no money,” he had said.

In her judgment last week, Justice Donaldson-Honeywell agreed that Daniell had been “unjustly enriched.”

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