Former Premier McKeeva Bush would sometimes write out blank checks to pay back personal expenses racked up on his government-issued credit card, a court heard Friday.
The jury was told that Mr. Bush was “moving a mile a minute” and would “hop in and out” of his office between trips abroad, delegating many responsibilities to his staff.
On some occasions, the former leader signed blank checks to cover his credit card use and trusted his staff to fill it out, according to testimony from Wendy Manzanares, an accountant in the financial unit of his ministry.
She acknowledged there had been a system in place where Mr. Bush would be sent memos with his credit card statements asking him to identify personal expenses.
He would highlight the expenses, staff would calculate the total amount owed, and he would refund the money, she agreed under questioning from Mr. Bush’s barrister Geoffrey Cox, QC.
She accepted that this system, established when the defendant first received his government credit card in July 2009 shortly after winning the general election, had broken down in the early part of 2010. At that time, the unit had been short-staffed and was struggling to meet a deadline for preparation of the government’s accounts, she said.
Mr. Bush received a memo and credit card statement in March, 2010, after which he made three further refunds in “round numbers” of CI$9,000, US$13,000 and US$1,000 in April and June.
Ms. Manzanares said she could not recall if any of these payments had been blank checks filled in for Mr. Bush by his staff, but she acknowledged this was possible.
She agreed with Mr. Cox’s assertion that Mr. Bush was “moving a mile a minute” and delegated tasks to his staff, occasionally including filling out checks signed by him.
Throughout 2010, she said, staff continued to pay off the credit card balance as statements came in but had “fallen down” on the process of sending memos and statements to Mr. Bush.
It was during this time, the Crown alleges, that Mr. Bush made cash withdrawals, totaling around US$34,000 on his government-issued card in casinos in Las Vegas, the Bahamas and Florida. They say Mr. Bush failed to repay some CI$10,000 until he realized he was being investigated more than two years later.
Ms. Manzanares acknowledged that no more memos or statements had been sent to Mr. Bush following the payments in April and June, 2010, until December of that year. She said Mr. Bush had stopped using his government credit card for personal use following the introduction of a new policy banning such activity in July, 2010.
It was not until December of the same year that she had found time to go through his statements and produce a memo and spreadsheet highlighting expenses that appeared to be personal, as well as details of the premier’s repayments, she said.
She said the memo and spreadsheet indicated that around CI$10,000 was unaccounted for and she asked Mr. Bush to confirm if the expenditure was for personal use.
She said the memo and spreadsheet had been delivered to Mr. Bush’s assistant Jodie Whittaker, with a follow-up email sent in January, 2011.
Ms. Manzanares said she was aware that Mr. Bush had paid back around CI$10,000 identified in her spreadsheet in November, 2012, around two years later. “I think at that time he came to me and advised that he had not been previously notified of the outstanding balance,” she said. “I would have told him that I sent it to Jodie. Whether he received it, I don’t know.”
Ms. Whittaker testified on Thursday that she could not recall receiving the memo.
Mr. Bush has denied 11 charges, including six counts of misconduct in public office, contrary to Common Law, and five counts of breach of trust by an MLA, under the Anti-Corruption Law. The charges relate to expenses allegedly incurred on his government-issued credit card at hotels and casinos between June 2009 and April 2010. The trial will continue on Tuesday.
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