PM: Response to Auditor General’s report coming

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has given the assurance that questions surrounding the latest Auditor General Report will be answered within the next two days.

Speaking during a televised press conference at Ilaro Court on Monday evening, Mottley disclosed that Director of Finance and Economic Affairs Ian Carrington had prepared a response to the report which would be laid in Parliament by Wednesday.

She said it had always been the Government’s intention to respond to the report, but it needed time to do so.

“The Government has nothing to hide,” she insisted.

The Mottley administration had faced increasing pressure from the general public as well as various organisations and most recently the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) to address the many issues highlighted in the report.

The Prime Minister reiterated that Auditor General Leigh Trotman’s concerns were mainly related to accounting deficiencies and not corruption.

She explained that several improvements to Government’s accounting system that ought to have taken place since 2007 had never occurred.

“I also want to reinforce in the people’s minds and to give the public and the wider public outside of Barbados who may feel that we are doing things that are the subject of corruption, that this is not a case of that.

“….Now, if this was a case of corruption I would tell ya straight off it is corruption that we dealing with … but this is a case of accounting standards….,” Prime Minister Mottley said.

One of the main issues highlighted in the Auditor General’s report was the failed Four Seasons property which Trotman said appeared to have been sold but it was unclear for how much and to whom.

While saying that she had not yet read the report, the Prime Minister maintained that Four Seasons had not been sold.

“To the best of my knowledge, the property is still there, the property is still the subject of discussion. In fact, our real problem is that it is a matter before the court as a result of the last agreement that was made and whether a person feels that they are to be the benefit of that agreement or not,” she said.

“But suffice to say that he [Carrington] has been able to garner all the responses from the various departments and with a cover letter and I would anticipate that that letter and those responses would go down to be laid digitally in our Parliament sometime between tomorrow and Wednesday.”

The Prime Minister noted that although Carrington was on holiday, he had worked tirelessly during that time to ensure the situation was handled.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb