Confidential Police files at the centre of the Bermuda Housing Corporation row were left unattended in an unsecured public throughway for up to six weeks before being leaked, according to the Auditor General.

Larry Dennis says the dossiers — handed to him by a member of the public — could have been picked up by anyone from a Police officer to a hired cleaner. In his annual report tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr. Dennis lambasts Police and politicians in a detailed account of the events surrounding his arrest last June as officers raided his office and investigated claims the documents were stolen.

He dismisses his arrest as a politically motivated attempt to discredit him, adding that Police knew all along where he had got the dossiers from and that they could not be considered stolen.

And he says he finds it difficult to forgive those who have tried to destroy his integrity and taken political shots at his family.

Explaining how he came to receive the documents, Mr. Dennis writes: "A Bermudian came to me and said that he was in possession of Police documents that indicated corruption at the highest levels of Government and a subsequent cover-up.

"If I thought, after reviewing a small portion of the contents, that the files might indeed indicate such activity, would I be willing to take possession of the documents? I cannot imagine any Auditor General, faced with this, refusing to exercise his Constitutional responsibilities."

Mr. Dennis suggests the decision to attack him was symptomatic of the failure of top Civil Servants for taking responsibility or accountability for poor performance.

He explains: "Last summer, Bermuda was subjected to a traumatic chain of events because confidential Police files apparently went missing.

"My information is that those highly confidential files were left unattended in an unsecured public throughway for four to six weeks where any Police officer or hired cleaner would have had unimpeded access to them.

"Lack of appropriate controls; opportunity. Responsibility? Accountability? I guess arresting the Auditor General seemed to be a good place to start."

He says Commissioner of Police George Jackson totally ignored his independence and his right to act on the information by stepping in as "the complainant, the judge and the enforcer".

Mr. Dennis states: "In order to have my staff, some of whom were employees of local audit firms, released from an office lockdown, I had my wife obtain and bring the files to my office. However, I would not reveal the source.

"As I was to learn, but have reason to believe, Police knew from whom the information came all along, copies could not be considered stolen property as a matter of law.

"In any event, I came to find out that the Police had been told the week before who my source was, information I confirmed once I became aware that my source had already readily admitted to it.

"With the reasons for my arrest now very much debatable, I feel that my arrest was an attempt to discredit me and was politically motivated."

He also turns his attention to accusations that his conduct was criminal by political figures including then Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess and Progressive Labour Party supporter LaVerne Furbert in the run-up to last year's General Election.

"Politicians and political commentators, trying to score political points, accused me of being a criminal and accused my wife of having access to confidential Government documents and of rifling through them," he writes.

"I can confirm that those binders with copies of Police documents were never in my home, my wife never had access to them (and neither did anyone else), and she never looked through them.

"I have spent 30 years working with integrity as my constant guide, saying it as I see it. It is difficult to forgive anyone who attempts to destroy my integrity.

"Likewise, my family is off limits in the political fray. Rally-rousing, cheap political shots at the expense of my family are also difficult to forgive."