Mr. Derek Moran:

As I said at the outset, the timeline is important. The Department did not have visibility on the Siteserv deal. Critical to this issue is when we first had an inkling that there might be an issue. We got a representation from a member of the public expressing concerns, and then there was a series of one or two parliamentary questions which brought up issues of concern.

A routine monthly management meeting was held in April at which the question of alerting the Department was raised. It was agreed with the chairman and CEO on 31 May that we would do so. It was in response to an e-mail from a member of the public, some press reporting and parliamentary questions. The review took place on 11 June, and Departmental officials and officials of the bank went through the various details on how the transaction was done.

The key element of concern was the first point that Siteserv led the sale and not IBRC - it was handed off to them - which gave rise to a range of other issues. It was those types of concern. We listened to the response, and there were five issues, all of which flowed from the fact that the company was allowed to run the sales process: not opening the sale to trade buyers, entering into exclusivity with a single bidder, the payment, the quantum of the payment to shareholders, and certainly the suggestion of not accepting higher bids. That is what gave rise to it, and it was immediately afterwards.

We have looked at the records and we have searched thoroughly in the Department. There is no record of details of Siteserv being provided by the IBRC to the Department before April 2012.