CLAIMING that there is overwhelming evidence of financial irregularities at the Santa Cruz New Testament Church in St Elizabeth, a once leading member of that congregation is demanding that the church leadership in Kingston conduct a “forensic” audit.

However, head of the New Testament Church of God Bishop Wellesley Blair has not only rejected the request, he is describing the accuser, George Robertson, as a man with a “lust for power”, and who needs to “get a hold of himself”.

Robertson, who said he resigned as a member of the finance committee for the Santa Cruz church in February, told the Jamaica Observer that more than $500,000 from the church’s purse is unaccounted for between March 2012 and August 2012. During an interview in Santa Cruz two months ago, he claimed the missing money fits into a general atmosphere of unaccountability and a lack of transparency dating back six years.

According to Robertson, he has requested, without success, that church leaders at the local level, as well as at the church’s Kingston head offices conduct an audit of the church accounts in Santa Cruz. He said he had the support of others in the Santa Cruz congregation.

“Dozens of other persons are expecting me as their leader to have this matter sorted out. They and other officers…have already signed a petition asking that the church and its headquarters have an audit done,” said Robertson.

He said that, while he had not considered it appropriate to go to the police, he had decided to go public out of a desire to force church leaders to act.

“There are so many irregularities that we have to put a stop to it, and now is the time to do so. I don’t know if it all comes up to fraud, but the fact is…over half a million dollars from March 2012 to August 2012, has been spent without the board (of the church) knowing anything about it. There is a lack of transparency and accountability for the past six years,” he said.

However, when the Observer sat down with Blair for an interview recently, he said that Robertson’s allegations were unfounded.

“They are unfounded because we don’t have any facts to prove what he is saying,” Blair declared. The bishop insisted that he had no knowledge of the sum spoken of by Robertson being unaccounted for.

“He wants a forensic audit, we do our own internal audit at the time, and one of the things that has really touched me is he (Robertson) said the sister (in charge of accounts in Santa Cruz) overpaid taxes — she has overpaid the taxes and nothing has been done,” Blair said. “What a beautiful church to pay government more tax than what they deserve. I prefer to hear that than we have paid none,” he said.

“It’s an unfortunate situation, very unfortunate. But when a man is in lust for power, he [will] do anything to get it,” he added.

Questioned further about Robertson’s request for a forensic audit, Blair said: “Anybody can request an audit, but a lot of requests could be granted and could be refused, which depends on the motive.

“And when you feed motives that are contrary to Christianity, you are helping the devil’s cause, and that’s not one thing I am going to do,” he said.

Despite his rejection of Robertson’s call for an independent probe, Blair said the church was not afraid of being audited and insisted that financial propriety is very important.

But is he confident that there are no financial irregularities at the Santa Cruz New Testament Church?

Blair said he was told to “never say never”, but insisted that the evidence does not support that there is.

The bishop alleged that Robertson did not move to highlight the issue because of his love for the church, but because of his lust for power.

“My Bible says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church and it is a very sad day when a member, because of lust for power — it’s not a matter that he loves the church, but for lust for power — is going to bring the church into disrepute,” said Blair.

Robertson, who showed the Observer documents which he claimed support his allegations, had also cited Christianity and the church’s welfare as justification for his campaign to have a comprehensive audit done of the accounts in Santa Cruz.

“I will go the whole way to make sure that the church is fixed,” said Robertson, who told the Observer that he has been a member of the Santa Cruz congregation since its inception 45 years ago.

“You cannot have these kinds of corruption, and at the same time you are planning to go to heaven…. I am seeking attention from the bishop and executive of New Testament Church of God to fix it, fix the problem, you can’t have one or two people just deciding how to use the people’s money… In six months, over half a million given away and lent out, can’t even know to whom… mi no want go a heaven if me sit down inna the corruption…,” said Robertson.

“Dozens of people” who were disgruntled with the situation have “drifted elsewhere … worshipping all over the place,” he claimed.

“Apparently they (church leadership) believe is only me alone making the trouble, but there are dozens of peopl,e from the rostrum to the pew, who are uncomfortable with the situation and they are waiting to see what will happen.

“They are not going to stay in the corruption forever, if we can’t fix our house, how we expect politician and others to fix the country?” he asked.

Blair said that, to the best of his knowledge, Robertson was acting alone in making the allegations of financial irregularities, but reasoned that he wouldn’t say there aren’t others because “every hoe have dem stick a bush”.

That aside, Blair asserted that “as the elected and appointed person to lead this church, no one will be allowed to hijack or stick up this church”.

He credited Robertson for being a “good worker” and for his long service to the church in Santa Cruz.

However, according to Blair, Robertson’s problem was that “he likes to be in charge … What I am saying, I spoke to him about it… if he is not in charge then he is going to give the persons in charge some problems. Now, we don’t deal with those type of tendencies in our church”.

The bishop reiterated that Robertson has “a forceful type of way of doing things, he must be in charge. And every pastor that has been there (Santa Cruz), except one, has had problems with him … I have no intention of maintaining that type of problem…”

In his interview with the Observer Robertson had questioned the removal of his name from the church’s bank accounts in Santa Cruz.

But Blair said, as head of the church, he had ordered the removal of Robertson’s name from the accounts and had stripped him of all administrative functions.

Blair shared a letter with this newspaper in which Robertson, as an ordinary member of the church who also served as a member of the board and one of the signatories of the church’s bank account, requested an independent forensic financial audit into Santa Cruz New Testament Church’s accounts. Robertson stated in the letter that he believed that the audit would serve to restore the church’s financial integrity, restore members’ confidence in the church’s treasury, and resolve all disputes, allegations and counter-charges in relation to church procedures. That letter asserted that, despite numerous reports of disbursements, there has not been an audit or proper financial report since 2005. Robertson also gave Blair an ultimatum, charging that if no response was received to his letter by June 30, 2014, he would view that as the head office’s inability to deal with the matter, and that he would instead seek the assistance of the international executive committee. Robertson’s letter was dated June 16, 2014.

In his response, which was dated June 26, 2014, Bishop Blair said: “It is ironic that almost word for word of this letter has been on social media, which has gone viral. Very coincidental. I also noticed that you said if you get no reply by the 30th of June you will be writing to the international office. My brother, I do not respond to threats. I will respond by removing your name from the church’s account, I am also relieving you of all other engagements that you have in the Santa Cruz church, which means that you should hand over to Pastor Bishop Alfred Morris (local pastor) all keys you have in your possession for all buildings belonging to the church.”

Morris had declined when asked two months ago by the Observer to respond to Robertson’s allegations. He said then that Blair was best able to respond.

Additional reporting by Garfield Myers, editor-at-large, South/Central Bureau.