Vele directed to have witnesses ready for inquiry

TREASURY secretary Dairi Vele has been directed by the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the Union Bank of Switzerland to have the list of witnesses ready when the inquiry sits for its hearing on Feb 28.
COI chairman Sir Salamo Injia, while accepting the request by the Treasury Department through its counsel Tiffany Twivey-Nongorr of Twivey Lawyers for a two-week extension, directed that the documents requested by the commission be provided in hard and soft copies before the hearing.
The Department of Treasury was directed by the commission to provide all documentation and a list of witnesses relating to the loan deal on Dec 23, 2019, which it failed to comply with.
According to Nongorr, it was impossible to provide all the documents and list provided by Dec 23 as the documents to be obtained stretched back 10 years.
She said Vele was appointed to the position in 2014 and was responsible for all the documents in Treasury Department.
“The persons responsible for the documents then who are the witnesses no longer work at Treasury so it was a matter of collating all that information,” she said.
“It is difficult to contact people in late December and January particularly in the public service as that is the time they take their leave.
“I am now in a position to advise that we have nearly all of the documents and all the witnesses and we should be able to provide this commission within two weeks.
“This is essentially the road map and Treasury had a large role in all of the different transactions and were mentioned extensively in the Ombudsman Commission report.
“There is a great deal of material that will be presented to you in a form that is accessible,” Nongorr said.
Sir Salamo said the commission expected the documents from Treasury to be submitted both as hard copy and electronic version on Feb 28.
The COI was adjourned to next month.