More amnesia at the Mahon Tribunal.
Government chief whip Tom Kitt forgot to tell the tribunal about more than £3,000 in donations from landowner Christopher Jones, it emerged yesterday.
Mr Kitt, who is still trying to establish with his bank how much he got from Mr Jones, yesterday admitted his initial response to tribunal inquiries wasn’t as comprehensive as it should have been.
Last month, he wrote to the tribunal acknowledging he got a £500 donation from Mr Jones in 1991, according to senior counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon. He also said he received £800from an employee of Mr Jones, Frank Brooks, at a golf classic last year.
But Ms Dillon said this did not represent all the payments Mr Kitt received from Mr Jones. The tribunal had sent him financial records, including copies of cheques, for three other payments, for £2,000 in 1992, £500 in 1992 and €650 in 2002.
Mr Kitt had then replied saying he had no specific recollection of these cheques.
Due to pressure of work, his response to the tribunal letter hadn’t been as comprehensive as it ought to have been, he said.
He was on the radio yesterday too:
He blamed the omission on poor records that he kept at the time. He said he was “annoyed” that he had not been able to recall the donation, but was happy to clarify the situation at the tribunal yesterday.