Auditor General Leigh Trotman says that based on public records, the property housing the abandoned Four Seasons Project has been transferred to a private company but he has seen no evidence of payment related to the transaction.
Trotman gave an update on the matter in a follow-up audit in his 2021 annual report, one year after he raised concern about $120 million related to the project being written off in 2018.
“In respect of the sale of the property, a review of the records at the Land Registry Department indicates that the property has been conveyed to a private company. However, there is no evidence of consideration being paid,” the Auditor General reported.
Trotman recalled that in his 2018 and 2020 reports, he “indicated that there were some concerns surrounding the accounting treatment of a loan guarantee made by the Government of Barbados through its company, Clearwater Bay Limited, in the sum of $120 million”.
“This guarantee was in relation to the construction of the proposed Four Seasons-managed hotels and villas. The sum of $120 million had appeared in the books of the Government as a receivable for a number of years but was completely written off in 2018,” he said. (SC)
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