DUTCH investigators probing the $31-million donation to the People’s National Party (PNP) by oillifting firm Trafigura Beheer will have to wait until later this year in order to get answers to questions they have posed to officials of the Opposition party.

The PNP was yesterday expected to start providing answers in the Supreme Court but the matter was postponed until November 14.

The postponement was due to the death of the mother of lead counsel for the PNP KD Knight, QC, coupled with the fact that Queen’s Counsel Patrick Atkinson has recently joined Knight in the matter.

Both men are representing PNP President Portia Simpson Miller, chairman Bobby Pickersgill, and former ministers Phillip Paulwell and Colin Campbell, from whom the Dutch investigators are seeking answers.

The Dutch investigators had last year, through the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution, filed a motion in the Supreme Court seeking answers to their queries. The application for the order was made under the Mutual Assistance (Criminal Matters) Act.

The Trafigura matter came to public attention in 2006 when the PNP, then in Government, accepted a $31-million gift from the Dutch firm which at the time had an oillifting agreement with Jamaica.

Exposure of the donation created a controversy and plunged the party into turmoil, resulting in the resignation of Campbell from the Cabinet and as general secretary of the PNP.

The money has since been returned, the party said.