The Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) has done the right thing by mandating its Acting CEO Mr Lincoln Allen to correct the systemic weaknesses discovered in a check of its internal records.

For, given what the FLA revealed to the country on Wednesday, it is clear that the authority has major problems.

Outside of the absence of the file pertaining to Mr Patrick Powell, who is now before the court for failing to produce his firearm to the police for investigation, the FLA obviously has an issue with accountability.

How, we ask, can the board of any entity request a file relating to the business conducted by that entity and be ignored?

The FLA, in its statement on Wednesday, told us that it received a letter from the Police Criminal Investigation Branch on August 18, 2011 requesting that Mr Powell’s firearm licence be revoked on the grounds of his refusal to produce the weapon for inspection after written and verbal communications from the police.

On August 31, 2011, the then FLA board chairman, Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Errol Strong, requested information and documentation on Mr Powell’s case. However, according to the FLA, “There is no evidence in board minutes to show that the requested information was provided to the board.”

The FLA then revealed that six years later, in July 2016, the new board requested information on Mr Powell’s case from the FLA management, but “no information was provided”.

That, we find absolutely incredible!

While the FLA went on in its statement to list other discrepancies relating to Mr Powell’s firearm, the authority said nothing about sanctions applied for what appear to be instances of insubordination.

To make matters worse, the FLA told the country that, on October 27, 2016, when the board demanded the file on Mr Powell, “it was then discovered by the board that the file was nowhere to be found at the FLA”.

However, the FLA explained, the “last established evidence of the movement of the file was when an officer in the then CEO’s office made a request from the FLA Registry on April 14, 2015”.

The question therefore is, has this officer been questioned? If that was done, the country should be told what the officer said. If the officer has not been questioned, the public needs to be told why.

We are aware that the FLA has been working to clear the backlog of information it received when it took control of issuing licences and permits from the police in 2006.

That, we suspect, is a very difficult task, as there seemed to be little appreciation within the constabulary for accountability, especially with a system that was riddled with corruption.

The

FLA,

though,

needs

to

cauterise

the

damage

inflicted

by

this

case.

It

also

needs

to

assure

the

country

that

the

graft

that

once

characterised

the

granting

of

firearm

licences

will

not

return.