Auditor General Report Revives BDF Military Tourism Fraud Case

The newly released Auditor General’s Report for 2017–2018 has caused a case of suspected fraud to resurface.  The 10-year-old incident involves money collected through what Auditor General Maria Rodriguez calls “military tourism.”  The arrangement allowed foreign soldiers to pay for jungle training and the use of BDF facilities, personnel and equipment.  Between January 2015 and May 2016, more than two hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars was paid out by a foreign agency, but it was not deposited into a BDF bank account. The concerns were serious enough for the Auditor General to recommend that the Defence Ministry’s Chief Executive Officer make a report to the police.

Maria Rodriguez, Deputy Auditor General: “The 2017-2018, if you look at the individual reports in chapter 5 we did find an alleged conflict of interest which is classified as fraud and we recommended that the matter be forwarded to the police. Hence the regulations speaks in that order that we must, if we find fraud, not we but in the government there is fraud that the matter is to be forwarded to the police. In the ’16/’17, we initiated this investigation on German jungle training. And so what we found is that when the army had come they paid a private business rather than paid the BDF or paid the government for doing jungle training. But when you go through the report, you will realize that what the company, the private company had offered, which was co-owned by a BDF officer, they offered a tour package plus jungle training. And so the business advertised for a tour package plus jungle training where the jungle training will be offered by the BDF at the cost of the BDF by the way and that’s why we thought it was important to bring up, because it was at the cost of the BDF that this jungle training was provided along with some other services for the tour package that was being offered by this private company. And so using the BDF for private gain is considered well a major misconduct and in this case it was an alleged conflict of interest because the company was co-owned by a BDF officer who knows that the BDF can offer jungle training. It has been offering jungle training to other armies. And so that’s how that tourism business came about and in fact I believe the term that was given to us was military tourism that was occurring at the time.”

The Auditor General flagged the arrangement as an apparent conflict of interest. Auditors were unable to determine how much the Germans paid the company or whether the BDF received everything it was owed.  Rodriguez says her team followed the paper trail after discovering that some of the money had allegedly gone into an officer’s personal bank account. She says the auditors then took steps to make sure subsequent payments went directly to the BDF.

Maria Rodriguez, Deputy Auditor General: “Because of the audit we asked that the funds be deposited to the government because we saw where the expenditure came out of the government’s pocket. And so that transaction did occur. It was deposited to the account and that’s how we found out who exactly was that private company because all of that was being covered until we went to the extreme to ask for the deposit slip as to who made the deposit to the government, to the BDF account.”

Reporter: So eventually the money was deposited into the BDF account? 

Maria Rodriguez, Deputy Auditor General: “Yes, and if you look at the report it was deposited a year after the training was given, a year, year and a half after the training had occurred with the Germans. But because the audit came about. if nobody had found out that it was paid to the private company, the private company would have kept it because it was them collecting for jungle training and this tour package.”

Reporter: So in this case you have recommended that this be reported to the police. 

Maria Rodriguez, Deputy Auditor General: “Police, yes.”

Reporter: Even though the money has been….

Maria Rodriguez, Deputy Auditor General: “What I understood from the present Commandant because he was asked by the JPAC to provide an update of the situation and I understand that the gentleman was disciplined internally by I guess the security services have their own disciplinary procedures. He was disciplined but was not dismissed. He’s about to retire if I’m not mistaken this year and next year and possibly will receive his full benefits as a retiree.”

Reporter: So you’re recommending that that be reviewed? 

Maria Rodriguez, Deputy Auditor General: “Yeah, well, the report says clearly that he had to be dealt with accordingly through the criminal courts because we found fraud. The idea was to proceed not internally but outside. I did not even recommend that they deal with it internally. I recommended at the time that it be dealt with through the courts.”

The Auditor General recommended that the officer involved be made to account for money received but not reflected in the BDF account.