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Straughn: Blame it on the DLP

by Randy Bennett
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Ryan Straughn

Most of the worrying contents of the most recent Auditor General’s report are associated with the former Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration.

So says Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, who has contended that the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) found the majority of those issues when it assumed office in 2018.

In the report prepared by Auditor General Leigh Trotman, which covers the financial year ending March 31, 2019, several red flags were raised, including funds being misappropriated and flawed accounting practices and procedures.

Straughn said that he, the Director of Finance and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance met annually with the Auditor General to review the findings.

“Most Barbadians would have recognized we [came] to office over the last three years and we have tightened up on a number of areas as it relates to public financial management. All of the activities indicated here that are of significant concern all predate this administration.

“However, we have been seeking to ensure that we can find a path that minimizes the fallout as it relates to taxpayers . . . but we can’t speak to the fact that things happened before we came to office. This is what the report says,” Straughn said.

The Minister said he was not at all shocked by the findings of the report.

He said it spoke to the manner in which the DLP mismanaged the country’s finances during its 10 years in office.

The report revealed that the Poverty Alleviation Fund had been used improperly, with some of the $24 million paid out between April 2007 and July 2019, spent on mortgage arrears and sponsorship of shows, among other things.

Additionally, eight houses which were to be built by the Urban and Rural Development Commission to the tune of $620 843, were never constructed.

“When we speak to the Poverty Alleviation Fund and the activities that have taken place there, these are issues that will be of concern to us. Having come into office and seen where the nature of the public finances were, these audits don’t surprise me in the context that it reinforces the type of mismanagement that the DLP sought to pursue when they were in office,” Straughn said. (RB)

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