Responding to a recently leaked probe conducted by the internal compliance unit of Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) into contracts issued under the Minnis administration, WSC board consultant Loretta Butler-Turner said yesterday the board is not about "political witch hunts". "This board is truly about effective and judicious corporate governance," Butler-Turner said.

Prime Minister Philip Davis, meanwhile, declined to address the matter specifically when he spoke with reporters yesterday.

“I’m not going to get into that,” said Davis on the sidelines of the groundbreaking of FTX’s New Providence headquarters.

“Matters of that nature will be handled appropriately by the necessary authority. I don’t want my hands in it. Whatever is discovered, the chips will fall where they may.”

Eyewitness News reported that the probe revealed “apparent conflict of interest, lack of due diligence and poor professional judgment” in the management of WSC’s affairs.

According to the news report, investigators raised issue with two projects that required approval from the minister but no approval existed in the records of the board meetings.

Concerns were reportedly raised over alleged irregularities with the initiation, management and payment process of the projects.

The probe also reportedly found that the “evidence persuaded the auditors that there were high-level corrupt transactions that caused significant financial losses to the corporation”.

Butler-Turner, who acts as a press liaison for the board, said the report has not yet been formally presented to the board.

“This board is going to do whatever is judicious in ensuring that whatever recommendations are made that we try to see how best we address those,” she said.

The probe reportedly recommends an investigation into several companies that were awarded contracts by the corporation.

Butler-Turner noted, “This board is aware of the gaps that [existed] in terms of the judicious corporate governance prior to their appointment, so they have been very diligent in addressing many matters over the last four to five months.

“Many include matters as it relates to labor, as it relates to ensuring that the ongoing preservation, conservation, and resources and assets of the Water and Sewerage Corporation are protected and that the resources are there…”

The new board was named last December.

Butler-Turner noted that the corporation has not completed an audit in two years.

“Actually, when this board came into being, there were two outstanding audits,” she said.

“It was 2018 and 2019 that the previous board never even signed off on. We have just recently gone through those to ensure that that is done. As a corporation, there should be an official audit done each year and tabled in the House of Assembly. So, you see, now, it would be going on four years that such an audit has not been tabled in the House Assembly.

“The job of the board now is to ensure that those two that were just waiting for the board’s decision to agree to, which we have now done, and the two that are outstanding, that they are completed.”

The WSC board is chaired by North Eleuthera MP Sylvanus Petty and also includes Trajean Jadorette, deputy chairman; Brent Ferguson; Alvin Sargent; and Christine Thompson.

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