PRIME Minister PJ Patterson will respond ‘fully and completely’ to charges made by opposition spokesman on foreign affairs and foreign trade, Karl Samuda, that he has misled Parliament on the Sandals Whitehouse issue.

“I take very, very seriously any suggestion or allegation of having misled Parliament and, certainly, it is a matter to which I intend to respond very fully and very completely when the consultations that I have ordered are completed,” Patterson told Monday’s post cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

In response to questions raised by Opposition Leader, Bruce Golding, the Patterson had dismissed suggestions that corruption played a role in the overruns at the hotel, as well as the possibility of the excesses becoming a charge on taxpayers.

The PM also tabled a Ministry Paper to support his claims.

But Samuda responded in the sectoral debate by using a construction progress report to challenge the answers and assurances provided by the Prime Minister’s statement, as well as his Ministry Paper.

The opposition spokesman called for a thorough, forensic audit of the entire project – from inception to completion,

“Nothing less will suffice,” Samuda told the House.

Patterson said Monday that the report on which Samuda relied was prepared by “a particular group who had been engaged by the Sandals chain to represent their interest in the development.”

He said that there were many statements in the report which did not tally with the information available to him.

“But, even before that report had been issued, I had met with the Sandals group … some questions have arisen and I have directed that representatives of the three partners should be engaged in an ongoing exercise to ascertain precisely what happened and why and with what consequences,” Patterson said.

The three partners are state agencies Urban Development Corporation and National Investment Bank of Jamaica, and Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s company Gorstew Limited.

Patterson added that the group had already started to meet before he left the island, recently, and has continued to meet.

“I think it is a more useful exercise of everyone’s time to wait until that work has been completed so that we know what is agreed by all and what are the differences, if any,” he said.