NCC general manager challenges Auditor General’s findings

By Sheria Brathwaite

General manager of the National Conservation Commission (NCC) Ryan Als is disputing recent findings in the Auditor General’s Report which point to weaknesses in the agency’s procurement processes and claimed that a senior official contracted his own company to do work for the national cleanup programme.

In his 2022 report, Auditor General Leigh Trotman flagged the procurement and payment for services provided to the NCC during the January 1 to December 31, 2022 period.

It was stated that a company was paid approximately $1 553 402 over a ten-month period – January to October 2022 – to perform grease trap and septic well cleaning across NCC facilities.

However, in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, Als said he could not account for that information and was puzzled by the report.

“Our records indicate that only around $300 000 was spent on grease trap and septic services. Several contractors were engaged on an as-needed basis; some did routine maintenance and some did emergency services. I do not know where the $1.5 million came from, you will probably have to ask the chairman of the board to elaborate on that. But I have nothing of the sort on my records. As a matter of fact, we didn’t have that kind of money to spend on any one thing, so it is puzzling to me,” he said.

Trotman had also indicated that there was no evidence of a competitive selection process for the services provided by two entities who provided the services and, therefore, no way to determine if the rates charged were the best value for money.

However, Als said none of the contracts “reached the contractual threshold”

“For contracts for tender, the $200 000 threshold needs to be met. These services ranged from $2 000 to $4 000, depending on if the septic tanks had to be emptied or the wells had to be cleaned. They were small jobs.

“The persons in charge of the plumbing department are the ones who call in the services. They are the ones who see the problem, and indicate to management that there is a problem, whether it be a blockage or overflow, and if it is an emergency they would call and indicate such. Approval is given if it is done that way and if it is a routine, they will indicate that routine maintenance is required for a particular location and then that is approved by management,” the NCC general manager said.

He noted that the situation at Oistins Bay Garden was peculiar because there were more people using grease and oils than the septic system could accommodate.

“So every week and sometimes twice a week, we had blockages. Persons use the bathroom and use too much tissue and block the system. So we would often have to go and pump off the system, flush the lines, clean the manholes, grease straps and so on, to allow for functioning to continue. We did not want a situation that occurred in the past where the rodents and other vermin proliferated in the Bay Garden and it became a health issue. The Ministry of Health would have written to us several times and we had to rectify the situation in the interest of the public,” Als explained.

He added that the NCC started routine maintenance instead of ”reactionary maintenance” last year to avoid major shutdowns and maintain a good public health standard at Oistins Bay Garden, Worthing Beach and Rockley, all in Christ Church, where other vendors are located.

He said that as of last month, vendors at all NCC sites were asked to pay a maintenance fee of around $100 to help the commission maintain the upkeep of the facilities.

As it relates to the national 360 cleaning programme, the audit found that one of the entities, which is owned by the supervisor under the 360 Programme, removed debris in the constituency which he supervises and also set the rates for this service. Trotman described this as “a conflict of interest which has allowed the owner of the entity to perform tasks without appropriate checks and balances by NCC to ensure the work was carried out and at an economic cost”.

However, Als denied that is the case.

“No NCC employee was contracted to remove debris in the 360 programme. Contractors on the 360 programme clean and some remove debris and they are paid for the work that is done by pictorial evidence. Pictures are taken before and after the debris is cleared. We have 720 persons contracted to clean highways, byways, gaps, streets, alleys, all over Barbados. We do not have the NCC supervisory staff to do such,” he said.

Asked where he thought the claim could have originated, Als said the accounting system the commission used was outdated.

“Our accounting system does not house the pictures. It is not set up to do so, and when anyone is doing an audit, looking into the accounting system alone will not see the pictures. But management has a catalogue of the pictures, which can be provided if need be.

“But our accounting system is outdated, it is an MS-DOS system (Microsoft Disk Operating System). One of the challenges with changing the system is that our financial statements are way out of date and they were so before I took up my assignment as general manager. However, we are working diligently to rectify it. It is a slow process because resources are limited. When updated, it will eliminate challenges of not being able to track expenditure,” Als said, adding that by the end of this financial year, the system should be updated.

Overall, he said the state-owned agency needed a digital transformation to stamp out “archaic” systems.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb