The Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) resumed today, Thursday, with in camera sessions to hear testimonies from attorneys Norman Neal and Christopher Coye.
Co-chair of the Commission, Mrs. Merlene Bailey-Martinez, said that while the testimonies cannot be disclosed at this time, everything would become public eventually. We asked why these testimonies were taken in private, and the Commissioner said that in principle, the Commission holds in camera sessions when they are concerned that testimonies might be adverse to someone else, and they want to give the affected party a chance to respond before that testimony becomes public.
Neal and Coye have both rebutted portions of testimony given by former DFC chairman, Glenn D. Godfrey, in public hearings before the Commission. Godfrey’s testimony on the details of his law firm’s involvement in the $30 million Novelo loan, have been disputed in press accounts given by Neal, his long-time associate, and Coye, his former colleague, and now the Commission gets to officially hear what they have to say.
As we have previously reported, the DFC had reportedly paid out $1.7 million in fees for the transaction. Godfrey had told the Commission that Coye, then an attorney in his law firm, had received all the monies paid to his firm as commission, that Godfrey’s firm did not benefit in any way.
Coye had told our newspaper that the legal fees amounted to about $450,000 and his commission was the usual 20%. Neal had said he had only been paid $40,000 to assist with the legal work. The question that remains unanswered is, who got the remaining 70%?
After hearing Coye and Neal, the Commission plans to call back Godfrey, as well as call David Novelo, one of the principals of Novelo Holdings Limited, which got the $30 million loan. No date has been set yet for those sessions, but we understand that they most likely won’t be public, but held in camera.
Recent news that the Government has decided to write down a $12 million loan that Universal Health Services to $4 million (a third its value), has also sparked the concerns of the Commission. We understand that this is one of the issues they will be probing into before they wrap up their work and make their final report.