Instead of complaining about the auditor general’s report, Urban Renewal officials should have thanked the auditor general for pointing out their errors and admit to do better, according to former Free National Movement Chairman Darron Cash.
In a statement Cash said, “The political leaders of Urban Renewal decided to duck, cover and launch a vicious personal attack on the auditor general for doing nothing other than the job he is constitutionally mandated to do.”
On Wednesday Urban Renewal Co-Chairs Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and Algernon Allen disputed claims of fraud made by Auditor General Terrance Bastian in his report concerning the Small Homes Repair Programme.
Allen challenged the report’s call for “transparency and due diligence,” claiming that the audit report has “erroneous statements.”
Instead of challenging the report, Cash said he would have done what the prime minister’s political appointees failed to do.
“I say thank you to Auditor General Terrance Bastian for doing your work,” Cash said. “You deserve a Profiles in Courage Award for having the guts to tell the truth.”
Cash said he “cries shame” on the Pratt, who is also a former deputy prime minister and minister of national security because she should know better.
“As a former minister of national security, she should know better than to shoot the messenger. No wonder the police force is always in full dysfunction mode when the PLP (Progressive Liberal Party) is in office. No one ever has the courage to tell the minister or prime minister the truth for fear of being slammed down,” he said.
Cash added that Allen and Pratt should know that the auditor general does not report to them nor does he report to the prime minister.
He explained that the auditor general is in a constitutionally independent position that does not bow to the directives, wishes or winks and nods of the politicians.
“They obviously believe he is the managing director of the Bank of The Bahamas,” Cash added. “If the auditor general does answer to anyone, it is to the speaker of the House of Assembly.”
Allen is also a former government minister and according to Cash, he along with Pratt should know that the auditor general’s job is not like the marching bands Urban Renewal promotes, where musicians are told “to sing off their hymn sheet” and then told “how great they are and what a great job they are doing.”
He further explained that the job of the auditor general is to perform an independent audit based on the facts.
“Whatever information he needed to perform his work should have been given to him at the start of the audit, during the audit or while the draft report was in circulation. It seems clear to even a casual observer that the answers the auditor general requested were not given at any stage of the process,” Cash said.
Therefore, Allen, Pratt, the prime minister and deputy prime minister are the ones to be “slammed” for that, not the auditor general, he added.
