Environment minister seeks to clear the air on Auditor General Report

Minister of Environment and National Beautification Adrian Forde on Tuesday sought to clear up anomalies regarding procurement at the National Conservation Commission (NCC) report that were flagged by Auditor General Leigh Trotman.

At the same time, he assured that steps were being taken to ensure that procurement laws and regulations were followed.

In a press conference at the ministry’s headquarters in Warrens, St Michael, Minister Forde told the media he had to set the record straight about some of the findings of the 2022 Auditor General Report which had been a topic of national debate.

“It is important to get the facts right and a lot of times the facts are put out there and they are distorted for whatever reason. So, I just want to come today to give Barbadians the facts as it relates to the incident that happened at the NCC and invariably speak about the Auditor General’s report. That has been on the lips of a lot of Barbadians over the last couple of days and I feel it necessary to correct some of the distortion that I see out there as it relates to the facts,” he said.

In the report, Trotman highlighted 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, the minister explained that on December 9, 2022, he wrote to his permanent secretary about a report that was brought to him by the chairman of the NCC board. Forde said the document identified some anomalies in terms of accounting and procedures and he requested that it be sent to the Director of Finance and Economic Affairs.

He added that the permanent secretary then wrote to the Auditor General and asked that an investigation of the report be conducted.

Quoting a paragraph from Section 4 of the report, Forde said: “There was no evidence of a competitive selection process for the services by these entities and, as a result, there was no way to determine if the rates were the best value for money. For example, only one entity was used by NCC to clean grease traps and provide other cleaning services at various parks and recreational areas. This entity was paid over $300 000 between January and December 2022 for this service.”

He said a subsequent special audit of the procurement practices of the NCC was done in June 2023 and in that document, the correct figure was highlighted.

“The correct figure, based on the special audit, is $432 641. It was in the special audit report given to the ministry – a far difference from the $1.5 million that is the subject of discussion across the length of Barbados . . . ,” Forde said.

“We don’t live in a perfect world and when mistakes happen we have to admit that mistakes took place. We have to take action to ensure that it does not happen again. The trust the public puts in us, we have to ensure that there is a close connection to that trust and that there is a mandate that seeks to protect that trust.”

Forde said the NCC board of directors had introduced a series of measures in January.

“We have ensured that the requisite provisions which govern government procurement under the Public Finance Management Act are followed at all times,” he said.

“The board has begun the process of identifying a new accounting system because in the special audit, the Auditor General stated that a review of the information by the accounts’ personnel to the auditors revealed that there were a number of errors in the information presented within the board’s report [and] in some instances, records for invoices were replicated – that is, their totals were included more than once, thereby resulting in the inflated amount of $1 553 402.”

Last Friday, in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, NCC general manager Ryan Als challenged the Auditor General’s 2022 report stating that some of the issues and figures highlighted were incorrect such as the $1.5 million payment and the NCC using a company owned by a supervisor to assist in the national 360 cleaning programme.

Forde also supported what Als said as it relates to the cleaning programme.

Regarding the grease trap services and other cleaning the NCC does to maintain the kiosks and restaurants at some of the island’s beaches and recreational facilities, Als said a fee of around $100 was introduced last month.

On Tuesday, Forde confirmed that the vendors agreed to pay a maintenance fee.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb