The Port Royal Golf Course renovation project was undermined by substandard financial oversight as well as the “unclear, unsatisfactory and inappropriately documented” delegation of responsibility.

The Commission of Inquiry’s report found that no documented financial procedures were adopted and followed by Port Royal Golf Course Trustees and evidence of “possible criminal activity”.

The project, which was initially valued at $7.7 million, eventually came in at $25.5 million — $17.8 million over budget.

The four-strong panel of commissioners found no evidence of possible criminal activity by any civil servants but expressed support for the ongoing police investigation relating to the involvement of Ewart Brown, the premier and Minister of Tourism and Transport at the time.

The Commission in its findings pointed to what it described as an “inappropriate level of financial oversight of a quango by the Department of Tourism and Transport”.

It also highlighted concerns over the delegation of responsibility of a capital project from the Ministry of Works and Engineering to the Department of Tourism and Transport.

“The issue of delegation is one that exercised the Commission,” the report states. “Neither the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, nor the board of trustees had demonstrated that they had the capacity, the systems or the qualified personnel required for the oversight or management of a project of this magnitude.”

Earlier this month Opposition MP Zane DeSilva and other former trustees of the Port Royal Golf Course were sued by the Government over the project.

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