Back in 2009, the United Kingdom took over the day-to-day control of that territory amid allegations of corruption in Turks and Caicos for two years while their affairs were back in ‘good order” following a CoI.

Via a statement issued yesterday, January 26 2021, the man of the cloth said the territory should continue to stand up against the tactics “that matches the energy of our colonizers who seek to keep us bound, subservient and control our growth, maturity and independence.”

He continued: “I have pondered this for some days now; these types of CoI’s are labour intensive, and they are expensive, and they carry a great reputational hazard. They may result in those eventually being accused and having to spend a lot of money to defend themselves and in that respect, with no restitution even if they are eventually found innocent. Therefore this CoI should not be taken lightly, especially when we consider the precedent already set with our Turks and Caicos brothers and sisters in 2009.”

The clerical leader further stated that while he would steer clear of the allegations swirling around the need for the CoI, “ one does not need to have an IQ of a neurosurgeon to correctly assume that if the terms of such a wide CoI, is only six months then much of the investigation must have already been done and much of the evidence relied on already collected.”

“The timing and how it commenced in a hurry and without notice does certainly beg the question as to why the ex-governor and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would go to these lengths to set up a CoI, in motion if there is nothing there to be proven.”

He too said he was “not certain” of former Governor Augustus Jaspert’s motives for the inquiry.

“There was obviously a lot of strive between him and the current administration, but if he was intending to help the territory with this CoI, his timing could not be more imperfect,” Cline remarked.

The CoI is to probe whether corruption and intimidation exist in local government following allegations of same.