Youth Development and National Service Minister Foster Cummings is asking how confidential documents given to the police at their request by his lawyers made their way into the hands of Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial.
Responding to a question from Newsday at a media conference at his ministry on Elizabeth Street, St Clair, on Friday, Cummings said,
“As a result of a production order, certain confidential information was provided to the police. Those documents, which were properly marked by the attorneys when given to the police, have found their way into the hands of the opposition senator.
"This senator seems to have access to information that was provided to the police in furtherance of their mandate, as before, she presented an alleged Special Branch report and is now able to wave these documents on a political platform. I have today instructed my attorneys to write to the Commissioner of Police to draw his attention to this matter as one of serious concern for investigation and action.”
Cummings said there was no attempt on his part to get a warrant from the Financial Investigation Bureau set aside.
Speaking on the documents shared by Lutchmedial on her Facebook page last Thursday, which show the deposit of over $1.8 million into Cummings’ Venture Credit Union account in 2020, he said all payments would have been for work contracted while he was CEO, with the payments being made subsequently.
“It is well known throughout the credit union movement that many credit unions provide business loans to the principals or chief executives of small and medium businesses. These transactions usually involve the assignment of the contract proceeds to be paid directly to the lending institution. Companies are not allowed to be members of a credit union, it has to be either an individual or another credit union, so the business packages offered to small and medium businesses by credit unions in this country, is usually conducted by the principals of the business.
“Instead of stating that this was a legitimate business transaction where contract proceeds from various family-owned businesses would have been used to service the business loan for those contracts, they instead chose to mislead the population.
"These legitimate business transactions occurred prior to my appointment as a government minister, and I am no longer involved in the management of these companies. All of the proceeds of contracts are business income and would be reported as business income in the accounts of the various companies at the time, and the relevant taxes paid, that is standard.”
He said between 2019 and 2020, Rivulet Investment Group Ltd was awarded contracts for emergency works at the Couva West Secondary School, and the proceeds from these works were signed to Venture Credit Union as part of a business loan condition.
Cumming’s attorney Farai Hove Masaisai, speaking at the conference, said they had not yet received a response to a previous letter to the police commissioner about the Special Branch Report.
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