CRIMINAL lawyer Frank Phipps is close to concluding his probe of a Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) report into the alleged fraud and mismanagement at its New York office and could, an Observer source said, recommend prosecution of staff members.

“He (Phipps) reviewed the report and asked for statements (from staff),” the source said yesterday. “He got the statements and he’s now near to making a recommendation as to what to do,” the source added.

Phipps, one of Jamaica’s most senior criminal lawyers, was hired by the JTB in January this year to determine whether the tourism promotions agency should prosecute or seek other ways to recover money allegedly misused by staff.

The development followed last November’s completion of a review, and follow-up, by the auditor-general, Adrian Strachan, of a report that was done by the JTB’s internal auditor, Colin Greenland, into the operations of the New York office.

Former tourism minister, Portia Simpson Miller, ordered the audit last August when an anonymous e-mail began to circulate, accusing senior JTB New York staff of fraud, influence peddling, bad management, and misappropriating government resources.

At the height of the controversy in early September, Noel Mignott, the influential deputy director of tourism, who was in charge of the New York operations, where he served for over two decades, resigned his job.

A week later, the JTB said it had fired the New York office’s advertising relations manager, Marie Deeble-Walker, saying that it had lost “confidence in her judgement as a senior officer”.

The JTB also accepted the resignation of Yvonne Sawyers, the accountant/manager.

Deeble-Walker, claiming she was dismissed without cause and that her reputation has been damaged, has since sued the JTB for US$20 million.

Last night the Observer learnt that her case is scheduled to be heard in the New York Supreme Court on May 1.