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Min­is­ter of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion Eli Za­k­our has raised alarm over al­le­ga­tions of gross mis­man­age­ment, cor­rup­tion, and im­prop­er pro­cure­ment at the Ve­hi­cle Man­age­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (VM­COTT), even ac­cus­ing a for­mer chair­man of us­ing State re­sources to sell pies for his sis­ter’s busi­ness.

Speak­ing dur­ing Mon­day night’s Sen­ate de­bate on the Fi­nance (Sup­ple­men­tary Ap­pro­pri­a­tion) (Fi­nan­cial Year 2025) Bill, Za­k­our cit­ed a let­ter dat­ed April 10 2023, ad­dressed to for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and copied to sev­er­al se­nior of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing for­mer Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Sonya Fran­cis-Year­wood, for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Ear­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher, and DPP Roger Gas­pard. The let­ter called for ur­gent in­ter­ven­tion and an in­de­pen­dent au­dit in­to VM­COTT.

Za­k­our said the re­port out­lined cor­rup­tion, nepo­tism, mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of State funds and mul­ti­ple pro­cure­ment breach­es.