Ministry of Defence Moves to Report Former BDF Officer to Police

With a second call for criminal charges to be laid, Chief Executive Officer Francis Usher says the Ministry of Defence is moving ahead with the Auditor General’s recommendations in the matter involving former BDF officer Charlton Roches.  The report links Roches to money collected from foreign military groups for jungle training and the use of BDF facilities and equipment. Auditors reportedly traced some of those funds to his personal bank account instead of an official BDF account.  Usher says the ministry has reviewed the findings and is taking the necessary steps to have the matter reported to the police.

Francis Usher, CEO, Ministry of National Defence: “I am in the process of reviewing her report now. I do know that I’m scheduled to appear sometime in September for the Joint Public Accounts committee to review and discuss the report. We are reviewing it with the legal counsel and everyone internally and then we’ll see where we go from there. From that time I recall that we had a jungle schoolhouse that was providing training to foreign soldiers, particularly Germans and in some cases some Dutch soldiers. I understand that a private company that was owned by a member of the force was the one that was being contracted to conduct these trainings and the particulars of that were highlighted in the Auditor General’s report that we’re currently reviewing but I do know that at that time there were several cycles of Germans that were coming down to train. I believe they called it “the jungle experience.” So I don’t know for certain if the funds were paid back or how much funds were paid back. I know that around that same time there were some internal charges that were levied against Colonel Roches. I think that he challenged those charges and he ended up the charges were overturned because of procedural flaws I believe. We’re in the process of reviewing all of that. But yes, there were issues, significant issues around that time. And whatever the legal opinion at that time is, that’s what we will pursue.” 

Usher says the ministry will provide the relevant records to investigators and follow the process recommended by the Auditor General.