CORRINNE Lloyd, the co-executor of the will in which a parishioner left most of her property to the Catholic Church, actually signed court papers to have it probated, documents released yesterday by attorney Derrick Jones, the church’s lawyer, indicated.

Moreover, according to Jones, lawyers for Lloyd have said that on seeing the documents she now recalled signing them, an important vindication from claims of dishonesty for Ronnie Thwaites, the ex-parliamentarian and church deacon who has been under fire over the issue.

At the same time, though, the government’s auditor-general, Adrian Strachan, has launched an investigation into the circumstances how money made out to a government agency came to be lodged into the account of Thwaites’ law firm.

Thwaites, who is also a lawyer and a co-executor of the will, was allowed by former Roman Catholic archbishop, Samuel Carter, to use the property as collateral for a US$370,000 loan from merchant bank, Dehring, Bunting & Golding (DB&G) — a decision that Carter’s successor, Edgerton Clarke, has described as ‘ill-advised’.

But despite Thwaites’ insistence that the transactions were all above board, there have been suggestions that the will was probated without Lloyd’s knowledge, which would have suggested that a document bearing her signature was fraudulent.

But yesterday Jones told the Hot 102 FM morning talk show, the Breakfast Club, that a lawyer for Lloyd had reported that having seen a will bond, with a date appearing to be 7th February, 1994, she recalled signing the document. Jones later re-confirmed that statement to the Observer.

The document was witnessed by two justices of the peace, although their names could not be discerned.

However, the last digit of 1994, where it appears twice on faxed copies sent to the Observer, is blurred. It was difficult to ascertain whether a typographical error had been corrected.

Thwaites, a well-known social activist and ruling People’s National Party MP, was forced to resign his Central Kingston seat on Monday, five days after publicly volunteering that a column by Observer columnist, Mark Wignall, alluding to business improprieties by a PNP politician referred to him.

Apart from the issue with the church property Thwaites has been embroiled in another controversy over how $5 million collected by his law firm for the Post and Telegraph Department reached the law firm’s client account and stayed there for several weeks.

Thwaites had said that the lodgment was inadvertent and quickly reversed when he became aware of it.

But under pressure to provide full information on the issue, Blossom O’Meally-Nelson, the post master-general and CEO of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica, has asked Strachan to probe the issue.

“I…have requested the auditor-general to carry out a forensic audit of the portfolio related to the payment of radio licence fees,” O’Meally-Nelson said in a statement on Wednesday.

The transaction preceded O’Meally-Nelson’s appointment to the new Postal Corporation of Jamaica — an agency that Thwaites’ eldest son, Daniel, chaired when it was launched about two years ago.

At the time of the incident the Postal Corporation was being established and according to former Post Master General, Sam Stewart, it was Daniel Thwaites, through the agency’s interim board, who had recommended his father for the job to collect on behalf of the post office.

O’Meally-Nelson said that subsequent to her appointment she learned about Thwaites’ delay in paying over the moneys.

“Up until Monday, July 1, I had no knowledge that the sums which Mr Thwaites collected had been lodged to his company’s account,” she recounted.

The postmaster-general said she had received a full report on the matter surrounding Thwaites’ dealings and had forwarded it to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology.

In addition to the anticipated probe by the auditor-general, Parliament, at the behest of the Opposition, is also to investigate Thwaites’ dealing with the post office. The Opposition has also tabled questions asking the minister of water and housing, Donald Buchanan, to provide details of the dealings of Thwaites or his law firm relating to Operation PRIDE, government’s shelter programme.