REGINALD DUMAS

I'VE WRITTEN over the years about the scandalous inadequacies (to put it mildly) of THA financial and accounting submissions to our Auditors-General, all of whom have politely and consistently declined these submissions. On the 2003 presentation, for instance, the then Auditor-General said: 'I am unable to form an opinion as to whether the…statements present fairly…the state of affairs of the (THA) and its financial performance and cash flows…' On the 2016 presentation, the comment was: 'I have not been able to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion…'

With every failure, the THA has piously promised to do better, to put its house in order. Once the audit exercise ends, however, piety and promise are promptly put on a shelf, to be retrieved, dusted off, and used on the next occasion. No action is taken by our central governments on these shortfalls. As we have come to know, the primacy and sanctity of party politics, in the mindless view of many, far outweigh in importance the welfare of the country, or the island - indeed, for them, the party is the country, or island. But it's bewildering that taxpayers - whose money, after all, is directly involved here - also remain silent.

The new THA Chief Secretary, Farley Augustine, has recently expressed a determination to stand on its head the Assembly's culture of mismanagement and unaccountability (to call it no more than that). In his address last month to the Assembly, he listed a plethora of horrors: at mid-December 2021, THA liabilities were nearly $1 billion; the former Executive Council, in a little more than two and a half months between November 2020 and January 2021 (elections were to be held on January 25), had made decisions to spend over $350 million 'without first identifying the funding to meet this expenditure;' at September 30, 2020 the THA Fund account was overdrawn; and so on.

Augustine didn't mention it, but there has been a carnival of colourful deficiencies pinpointed by several Auditors-General. We shall see how he confronts them. Here are some: no supporting documents to verify expenditure; non-disclosure of a 20-year lease arrangement of over $320 million; significant differences, up to over $157 million, between cash books and bank statements; violation of Comptroller of Accounts circular; monies withdrawn from the Contingencies Fund and not used for meeting urgent and unforeseen expenditure (in one case, apparently, to construct a mall!); sums paid to foreign airlines with no evidence of THA monitoring. And the mas goes on, with taxpayers' money flung waywardly about like confetti.

Consistent with his party's platform position, Augustine announced the establishment of forensic audits - of five programmes and projects initially - and warned that 'if any evidence of fraud and corruption is unearthed by the audits, those who are identified as being criminally liable will face the full brunt of the law.'

One of the programmes is 'road resurfacing;' another is 'road r