National Drug Commission staff received $129,800 in performance awards in 2005 and 2006 without appraisals of their work being completed.

It is just one of the stinging condemnations of the now defunct entity made by former Auditor General Larry Dennis in his final audit of Government books made public on Friday.

Mr. Dennis said it was clear there was "an almost total absence of internal and accounting controls and board oversight" for the NDC, which was granted $20.2 million of taxpayers' money between 2002 and 2006.

He recommended a Police investigation, saying the board of directors "failed" in their fiduciary responsibility to manage the NDC affairs as they were required to do by law.

Unease was also expressed by the Public Accounts Committee last March.

Members including Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards, former Shadow Finance Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin and Progressive Labour Party backbenchers Zane DeSilva, Walter Lister and Patrice Minors then said a Police investigation into the NDC was taking place.

"Given the state of the accounts and the other apparent financial misappropriations, [the] committee believes that these performance bonuses were entirely inappropriate and should be carefully reviewed and reclaimed by Government if necessary," a PAC report stated.

PAC also highlighted serious problems "including missing invoices and destroyed documents".

Police have failed to reply to several requests over the last year for information on the investigation, or confirm that one is actually taking place.

In last week's report Mr. Dennis said: "There was little documentation supporting the basis for, and approval of, merit awards paid to the staff totalling $48,000 in 2005 and $81,800 in 2006."

"The personnel files of most recipients of these awards did not even contain performance appraisals, even though some of these awards were supposed to be based on appraised performance. Three staff received performance awards of approximately $9,000 each and the CEO received awards totalling $11,000."

The CEO at the time was Don Philips.

Last week's Auditor General report also revealed the NDC executive secretary "fraudulently secured" $3,290 for airfares for her relatives in 2005. It is not yet known who the individual is and The Royal Gazette has been unable to find any court hearings on the matter.

The report also stated a staff member used a Government credit card taxpayers' money — to shop at Victoria's Secret a top lingerie company in the US. It was just one of 90 credit card payments totalling $13,000 which were "suspect as to their legitimacy".

The NDC's financial reports were denied an opinion from 2002 - 2006, this means the Auditor General refused to confirm that the accounts presented were accurate and complete.

He added: "Whether the board was unaware of the sorry state of the Commission's affairs, or whether it was aware and chose to do nothing, is unclear. But patently, the board failed in its responsibility to ensure that the CEO was performing his functions properly.

"There now appears to be ample evidence for the Ministry of Culture and Social Rehabilitation to begin holding senior management and board members accountable."

The Ministry said it had "no further comment to make at this time" last night.

The head of the board in 2005 was Roderic Pearman who took over after Reverend Allan Doughty and board members Fiona Luck and Kehinde George resigned in protest after the Government announced it was dissolving the Commission in November 2004.