By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

FINANCE Minister Michael Halkitis told Parliament his daughter once came home from school saying classmates told her he was “going to jail” for stealing VAT money, recalling the personal toll of political allegations as he continues to draw scrutiny for his previous role in Top Notch Builders, a company tied to convicted drug trafficker Eric Gardiner.

Mr Halkitis made the remarks during the evening session of Parliament, after earlier exchanges between government and opposition members over Opposition Leader Michael Pintard’s request for Commissioner of Police Shanta Knowles to widen the scope of an investigation into Mr Gardiner, Top Notch Builders and alleged government contracts under the PLP.

Gardiner is detained in the United States on drug trafficking charges. US authorities allege that Top Notch Builders was used to launder money. Mr Halkitis previously served as president of the company, a fact that has prompted opposition criticism since he was appointed Minister of Finance after winning the St Barnabas constituency.

Mr Halkitis recalled the period between 2015 and 2017, when the then-opposition Free National Movement challenged the Christie administration over its use of VAT collections.

"Listening to some of the exchange here this morning, Madame Speaker, it cast my mind back to 2015 to 2017 around there and where the VAT money gone, and that debate evolved into the government, namely myself as the Minister of State for Finance, stealing $1 billon worth of VAT money," Mr Halkitis recalled.

He said the claims reached his family.

"I had to listen to my daughter come home from school and say to me that the children were telling her, 'Your daddy is going to jail because he stole the VAT money,” he said.

Mr Halkitis claimed that after the 2017 general election, the then-FNM chairman acknowledged that "no money was stolen", but said no apology followed.

"No apology, no we're sorry for dragging your name through the mud, none of that," Mr Halkitis said.

He said politics requires resilience and that anyone seeking election to Parliament should understand that "this is big man and big woman things".

"I watch, Madame Speaker, some of the commentary and some of the things that are being put out there, and it cast me back to that time, and I'm not hopeful. I don't expect anything better," Mr Halkitis said. "But it would be good in the fullness of time, when everything is revealed, that those who so gleefully seek to scandalise your name with the same alacrity and enthusiasm apologise."