Auditor General Terrance Bastian has one simple statement in response to the barrage of attacks fired his way after The Nassau Guardian revealed details of his report into the Urban Renewal Programme last week.

"I have never had the opportunity to write my opinions," Bastian told National Review. "I only report the facts that we find during our audit. That's what we look forward to, reporting the facts and not our personal opinions."

Understandably, Bastian was careful not to get into a political fight with the co-chairs of the Urban Renewal Commission, Cynthia "Mother" Pratt and Algernon Allen, who put on a disgraceful and stunning display at a press conference that was broadcast live on ZNS radio last Tuesday.

Pratt, who left public life in 2012 with a wonderful legacy in place, managed to do tremendous damage to that legacy in a single swipe. Her response to the auditor general's report was both shameful and illogical. It was silly and it was immature.

In giving her emotionally-charged response to the findings, Pratt very bizarrely suggested his report was an attack on the poor and on her own integrity and that of Allen.

"At this point in our lives do you think we are about to get into any skullduggery? Absolutely not," she said. "I wasn't a young thief, so I sure won't be an old one. Here we come with this report as though we, all of us in here, are criminals. That is the impression that you are giving out there."

She then said Urban Renewal is being used as a political football and suggested the auditor general did not understand the philosophy of Urban Renewal.

"They will do anything to destroy Urban Renewal because it is touching the lives of the poor," Pratt charged. "Why are we looking at little things? There are some honest people left in this Bahamas, you know."

Among other findings, the auditor general determined that 11 contractors were paid $171,000 as part of the Small Home Repairs (SHR) Programme for work that was not completed or never done.

If Pratt and Allen view that conclusion as a "little thing" then they are likely ill-suited for the positions they hold. These are paid positions, we add.

While saying on the one hand that they were not mounting an attack on the auditor general, a constitutional position, Allen charged that the auditor general's report was "ignorant, ill-advised and signals a clear abdication" of his responsibility to "pursue truth".

Pratt and Allen reminded us of a major problem that exists with those in the political directorate who lead our country. This strong resistance to accountability is a reflection of bad governance. It is a pity they have adopted the same means of operating.

The auditor general's report was not an attack on Pratt and it was not an attack on Allen. No one has called them thieves.
The report was an unemotional, fact-based assessment of the Urban Renewal Programme. We do not doubt that the co-chairs have a genuine commitment to help the poor. That is not the issue here.

Pratt and Allen are also refusing to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is probing Urban Renewal.

Instead of appearing before the PAC to answer questions, they have listed several reasons why they will not appear. They claim the process being engaged in by the committee is "inappropriate and illegal". In fact, they said in a letter addressed to PAC Secretary David Forbes they would only appear before the committee if the "purported" audit on Urban Renewal completed by the auditor general is tabled in the House of Assembly.

After complaining that the auditor general did not interview them before completing his report, they are now running from inquiries being made by the Public Accounts Committee. If Pratt and Allen have nothing to hide then they should have no problem appearing.

Failing to account
The auditor general has concluded that the Small Home Repairs Programme lacks accountability, transparency and due diligence in execution, management and quality of work done. In case Pratt and Allen missed it, no one is suggesting throwing out the baby with the bath water, and no one is suggesting that the Urban Renewal Programme is a bad idea and should be dismantled.

What increasing numbers of sensible Bahamians are demanding is that our officials are held to account for the expenditure of our scarce public resources.

The co-chairs' reaction to the report is not unlike the response we have gotten from officials in government on a variety of issues, among them contracts associated with the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI).

Pratt and Allen missed the point of the auditor general's report in the same way Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis missed the point last month in the face of demands for more accountability on the award and administering of contracts associated with the North Andros project.

Instead of providing a complete accounting of the BAMSI contract, Davis arrogantly suggested the reason for the firestorm surrounding BAMSI had more to do with the opposition being against the idea of food sustainability. In this instance, the appropriate response to the findings of the auditor general's report should not be to launch an attack on Bastian and his fine team of professionals.

Prime Minister Perry Christie once told us that the Urban Renewal Programme will be his legacy. No well-meaning Bahamian would likely slam the aims of the program. Certainly, the auditor general did not do that. It is not his role.
It is unfortunate that Pratt and Allen took the auditor general's findings so personally and sought to discredit those findings.

This is the same auditor general that Christie told National Review earlier this year he would ask to conduct an audit into the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) after Managing Director Herbert Brown took issue with the findings of a forensic accounting report completed over a year ago by UHY Bain and Associates. This government should make up its mind whether it trusts the Office of the Auditor General to operate professionally and with integrity.

Addressing the Organization of American States on our government's anti-corruption measures in Washington, D.C., last month, Minister of State for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez highlighted various oversight bodies that are in place to guard against corruption. Topping his list was the Office of the Auditor General, which is responsible for financial audits of all government ministries, departments, agencies and corporations.

Gomez said, the "attainment of values such as morality, trust and ethics in government involves the integrated effort of the entire society and its constituent elements and institutions - legislative, executive, political, judicial, religious and civil - all engaging with each other to ensure transparency, accountability, and good governance."

Likewise, in his anti-corruption speech in the Cayman Islands last March, Christie pointed to a tight domestic framework to guard against corruption. He pointed to constitutional provisions which establish and empower the Office of the Auditor General as the supreme audit institution. Indeed, the auditor general plays a critical role in ensuring transparency.

Mixed tone

The current auditor general, Terrance Bastian, has served in that position since 2001. He is well qualified. Bastian worked in the internal audit department of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome for five years. He is the first chairman of the CARICOM Audit Committee and represents Caribbean auditors general on the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. He also worked with the external audit committee of the Organization of American States for four years. His multiple reports over the years have been used by politicians to raise the alarm on what sitting administrations are and are not doing. But the role of the auditor general himself is non-political.

Critical to achieving transparency is reporting, and reporting on time. After the Pratt and Allen press conference, we wondered whether the prime minister backed his Urban Renewal Commission co-chairs in their response to the report.
Christie did not speak to this issue publicly, but Davis, who has ministerial responsibility for Urban Renewal, did.
Davis' response was also unfortunate, but not surprising given his record of making ill-considered public statements.

"The commission is set up for the purpose of attempting to [separate] things political and apolitical," he said.

"That is why [it was] set up. They have a right to defend what may appear to be an attack on their own integrity."

Also downplaying the auditor general's report was Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, who addressed the matter in the House of Assembly on Wednesday.

"It was a sample," he said, of the report.

"Not every audit covers everything. All I am saying is, whether it is a day or whether it covers a year, the fact is the auditor general shows up, he looks at particular things, and he makes a report at what he finds when he shows up on those days that he is there."

It was refreshing to finally hear a sensible and mature response, which came from Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis.

When questioned by The Nassau Guardian about the report, Halkitis said the government intends to "dispassionately" examine it and address those weaknesses identified in the program. With debate over Urban Renewal and the auditor general's findings continuing, the prime minister should also add his voice.

Several of his ministers have been split in the tone of their response. We hope that, like Halkitis, Christie would view this as an opportunity to address the weaknesses that have been identified.

Attacking the auditor general is unhelpful and it could be harmful to the fulfillment of the government's stated commitment to transparency and accountability.

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