The head of the Manx Electricity Authority’s internal audit says he was kept away from the subsidiary companies behind ?120 million in unauthorised loans.

Paul Dewer gave evidence to a select committee of Tynwald yesterday.

He was asked about his audits of the Manx Cable Company and Skyward, two firms set up by the MEA.

The Manx Cable Company borrowed ?120 million and passed it on to the MEA – but Mr Dewer said he had no idea this had happened.

Mr Dewer said he’d asked to audit both companies – but the authority’s chief executive told him not to worry about it because another company was already doing it.

He told the committee he had the impression he was deliberately excluded from looking into the affairs of the two companies.

Mr Proffitt, who was his line manager, prevented him seeing documents and auditing the firms.

The first time he knew anything of the unauthorised loans was in November 2004 as the news began to break – and he said he would have expected to have been told about them much earlier.