Minister and Officials grilled over Signature Sponsorship T.T. deal

A picture of personality conflicts, a lack of procedure and desperation to save the T.T. has emerged from an appearance of three former members of the old Department of Tourism at the Public Accounts Committee.

David Cretney, who was the Minister until late 2006, Chief Executive Officer Carol Glover and Tourism Director Geoff le Page all faced a grilling from the Standing Committee of Tynwald chaired by Alf Cannan.

At a time when the T.T. faced an uncertain future, Signature Sponsorship Limited were employed by the department in early 2006 to boost commercial revenue from the event.

However, there was no tender process, no formal contract was ever signed and it cost a sum of over £1.6 million before the agreement was terminated in 2009.

David Cretney says the lack of a formal agreement between the parties is a matter of regret:-