By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrrolle@tribunemedia.net

POLICE officers from New Providence visited Grand Bahama last week to interview a number of Disaster Reconstruction Authority employees as part of a criminal investigation.

The Tribune understands that non-DRA employees were also interviewed. An official, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to discuss the matter, said the investigation is broad in scope and not nearing completion.

 The investigation, which follows a forensic audit into the DRA, shows pressure continues to hover over officials connected to the former Minnis administration, some of whom have hired lawyers as the Royal Bahamas Police Force examines whether to charge more people with crimes. A separate investigation into the Bahamas Beaches & Parks Authority is at an advanced stage. Since 2021, former FNM legislators Lanisha Rolle and Adrian Gibson have been charged with offences. 

 DRA chairman Alex Storr said a forensic audit was ordered for the authority because of what he called stark evidence of mismanagement by the former administration.

 Last month, Mr Storr said: “We had two audits ongoing, a forensic audit as well as the financial audit. We’ve received both of those. The forensic audit, we have looked over it and we have turned that over to police, who are now investigating.”

 Meanwhile, in August, Deputy Police Commissioner Leamond Deleveaux revealed that police were 80 per cent complete with their investigation into funds allegedly misused during the small home repairs programme under the Minnis administration. 

 In addition to the DRA and the Beaches and Park Authority, former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis told The Tribune earlier this year he was interviewed as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the COVID-19 food relief programme, though he was not a subject of that investigation. The status of that probe is unclear.