Integrity Commission Says FLA Ammunition Records Were Altered After Buyer’s Death

The Integrity Commission says records in the Firearm Licensing Authority’s database were interfered with, including an entry that listed a dead man as buying 2,000 rounds of ammunition almost three weeks after he had passed away.

The finding is contained in a long-awaited report laid in Parliament on Tuesday. The report followed an investigation into claims of corruption, misconduct and irregular practices at the FLA, an issue that recently became politically charged after Opposition members accused Parliament’s presiding officers of holding back the document’s tabling.

Investigators said four records were entered on the Licence Management System account of firearms dealer Kent Brown, who operates a firearm business. Those entries showed three people buying a combined 6,000 rounds of 12-gauge ammunition used for bird hunting.

However, the commission said its checks raised serious doubts that the transactions happened in the way they were recorded. “The DI’s [Director of Investigation] conclusion is premised on the fact that Shevon Robinson, former database administrator at the FLA, made four entries to the LMS of Mr Brown, of three individuals purchasing a total of 6,000 12-gauge, bird-hunting ammunition, without the request or consent of Mr Kent Brown,” the report stated.

One person named as a buyer told investigators he had never bought bird-hunting ammunition and had never gone bird hunting. Another said he did hunt birds, but had not done so since 2015. The third listed buyer had died roughly three weeks before one of the alleged purchases appeared in the system.

The commission said the issue went beyond simple clerical error and pointed instead to intentional interference with the FLA’s records. “The DI concludes that the FLA’s Licence Management System (LMS) was manipulated by the FLA, and it appears that inaccurate information was inputted in Mr Kent Brown’s LMS account,” the report said.

The Integrity Commission also said the apparent placement of false information in the Licence Management System could amount to a prima facie breach of Section 5 of the Cybercrimes Act, which covers offences linked to unauthorised alteration of computer data.

Even so, the matter was not sent for criminal prosecution. The report said a server failure at the FLA left gaps in the evidence and stopped investigators from fully establishing who made the disputed entries.

The database concerns formed only part of a broader probe, which also identified weaknesses in inventory management and accountability at the authority. During a review of the FLA’s vault operations, investigators found that 191 rounds of 0.22 ammunition belonging to a licensed firearm holder were missing from the records.

The commission also noted damaged storage bags, labels that were becoming difficult to read, and poor inventory controls that made it harder to trace items properly. Although only some of the vault records were examined, the findings were significant enough for the commission to urge the Ministry of National Security to arrange a full independent audit of all FLA vaults and storage areas.

Some of the claims examined by investigators were not proven. The report said there was no evidence that firearms marked for destruction had disappeared while in FLA custody. Investigators checked more than 1,200 firearms and firearm parts listed for destruction and found that the allegation was not supported by the evidence available.

The commission also said it could not determine whether a former FLA officer had demanded $2 million from Brown, or whether a $500,000 bribe had been paid in a separate matter. In both instances, investigators said the material before them was not enough to reach a firm conclusion.

The FLA challenged important parts of the commission’s findings. Its chief executive officer, Shane Dalling, rejected the position that the LMS had been manipulated. He suggested the questioned entries may have come from an old administrative practice in which information technology staff assisted dealers who could not get into the system themselves.

“I don’t believe — I’m not agreeing, at any point, that the system was manipulated to do this,” Dalling told investigators, according to the report tabled in Parliament. Still, he accepted that proper procedure may not have been followed. “Mr Robinson posting those transactions would — and I’m saying this is where I would agree that a breach may have taken place, that he ought to not have taken any directive on the phone or otherwise, but should have gotten it in writing,” he was quoted as saying.

The report also included evidence from former database administrator Shevon Robinson, who said technology staff sometimes posted transactions for dealers after being asked to do so. “Based on the aforementioned, ISTD [Information Systems and Technology Division] staff would update these records for the dealership or range using their login credentials,” Robinson said.

The Integrity Commission did not accept that the disputed entries were merely part of normal office practice. It maintained that the LMS was interfered with and that information which appeared to be fabricated was placed on Brown’s account.

The commission recommended several changes to improve oversight, record keeping and protection of the FLA’s information systems, inventory processes and storage arrangements. The proposals include an independent audit of the authority’s vaults, stronger rules for logging and tracking firearms and ammunition, better data backup and recovery arrangements, and stricter controls over who may access or alter LMS records.

Investigators also called for stronger monitoring and clearer accountability in how the authority manages both information and physical inventory.