How Did We Get Here? Read The Auditor General’s Reports!

Submitted by Douglas
Auditor General Leigh Trotman

Auditor General Leigh Trotman

Some Barbadians, especially the social commentators and the likes of Harold Hoyte, Carl Moore. Patrick Hoyos, Albert Branford, Wild Coot, Tennyson Joseph, Allan Fields, Peter Wickham, Caswell Franklin, David Ellis, Denis Johnson, et al, still want to know how the country got into this economic situation.

Some of us surely have very short or convenient memories.

HAVE A READ

51 thoughts on “How Did We Get Here? Read The Auditor General’s Reports!


  1. @ Enuff | February 3, 2014 at 7:03 PM |

    It is agreed we will not comment until the DLP ‘Doggie’ publishes the reports from 2008; especially anything on the NHC and NIS.


  2. Wow! this information is mind blowing. My question is this. Are all the decisions to spend the taxpayers money made solely by whichever party that’s in power without any knowledge of the other?
    I’m not into Barbados Politics, so I honestly have no idea how things are being done to protect the taxpayers who has placed these people to represent them.


  3. Barbados definitely must rethink its Westminster System of Government so called.We need timely and serious Question Time and the ability to fire ministers and parliamentarians who fall afoul of agreed parameters of Performance and Accountability….among other Performance Parameters.


  4. @ Miller
    Man tell the damn truth do!….
    …wunna can’t comment cause wunna shame as shiite.

    In ANY other country where there is any modicum of pride, 99% of wunna so would be cooling off wunna asses at Dodds…..

    Shiite man!! …even Bushie feel shame on reading that summary…..and Bushie never stole a cent from a boy….

  5. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2014 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad on said:

    Crooks , LIARS Lawyers and Scumbags.
    Love to see and Audit on the Plantation Deeds or even the Land Registry along with LAND TAX.


  6. Thank you,thank you Douglas for that complete hall of shame listing under the so-called economic and financial Guru Owen Arthur.

    Well,well,well.What unbelievable tiefing.

    Every BLP Tom,Dick and Harry was busy feeding at the trough and now this bunch of breadfruit swappers want to talk about looking after the man in the street’s interest.Wow!

    They now want to RUB SHOULDERS after they ROB US BLIND.

    Never before seen and hopefully never to be seen again I hope, should we experience this flagrant abuse of power and open and brazen breach of ALL FINANCIAL RULES to line their pockets.

    BLP politicians belong in the Hall of shame.

    I must read this report again and again to fully digest what the Auditor General tried to warn us was happening.


  7. Unfortunately, while i can endorse the “wows” that these criminals have inflicted on the people of Barbados during the years to which the Auditor General’s Report refers like any citizen who continues to suffer under the respective yokes of “the politics of inclusion” and not the yoke of “the Fatted Brahman calf” unfortunately i cannot dissemble between “the greater sin” as a few of you may seek to do.

    When a black married man in high office has an affair with his secretary or the organist or the choir mistress and as of late the choir master, those of ye “without sin” are quick to cast the first stone condemning his adulterous acts.

    But let it be a white man, a clinton, and we are quick to support the reasoning that such is not covered under the defienden of “sexual relations” and as such fellatio on the organ of a white president is not adultery.

    My point is this.

    BLP or DLP, the crooks need to be incarcerated and feel the iron of Bubba, sorry Egbert, up dem “parts” while they examine the quality of sheets cloth in prison cots at Dodds.

    Only one uh dem politicians need to get a good bulling and when them get out of that place, judging from the look pun dem face, an’ de pain below dem waist, dis tiefing will stop.

    Of course this reasoning is flawed since it does not take into consideration the delight that Jerome or Ronald “assassin to the English Language” Jones would take to that rogering. I feel dat dem is hoping dat (a) Fumble get de Integrity legislation passed and (b) dat dem get catch in dem respective areas tiefing tings dem…

    Six uh one en half dozen uh de nex…


  8. If Symmonds, Payne, Marshall, Toppin and Arthur CANNOT TRUST Mottley why should the rest of Barbados?
    You ain’t see that Symmonds refused to come to her rescue today and he allowed her to be savaged brutally and some may say mortally today by Minister Donville Inniss and the DLP members all the while Symmonds smirking and hitting Donville on his legs and telling Donville don’t stop she hurt now keep pelting the blows in her, she has never been more let down and left all alone than she was today at the PAC Meeting, not a BLP attempted to save her from herself.


  9. WHAT AN UTTERLY HORRIFIC REPORT, however, i would love to see the reports from 2008 to present. i ask myself.. is there a spirit of thievery hanging over Barbados that EVERY person who is responsible for some ministry or other MUST dig their hands into the public purse?

    it appears to me that two spirits have been at rule for a while, the spirit of stealing and the spirit cowardliness. the ministers, lawyers, most people in authority etc, blatantly STEAL and the population are too much cowards to do ANYTHING about it.


  10. Agree with you Pudryr.Both parties protect each other and treat us like fools and only use this information on political platforms at election time.

    Not a fella won’t get a day.

    Betchya Prodigal female and miller and the others will quickly tell us; no check out lashley and lowe.But how about checking out all of them starting with the head honcho himself Owen Arfa.

    Tell us about your people and then tell us about any who came after,fair enough?


  11. Guess what? When there is another change of government we will again read about malfeasance this time from the other side. This is what is wrong in this country. How have we missed the fact that they are playing us for fools? Not one of these crooks has ever tasted jail. Wunna still thinking bout marching?


  12. TO THE RICHARD SEALY FOOT SOLDIER.

    You Took offence to my use of the term empempirical evidence in reference to the Democratic Labour Party’s backpedaling on the many promises made to hold the BLP crooks accountable. Have you read this, or are you blinded or perhaps blinkered by an appointment?


  13. Hamilton Hill; I agree with your post at 10.02 pm. I was looking on the net for the Auditor General’s reports from 2008 to the present but could only find the 2012 one that was actually listed by BU. Perhaps Douglas couldn’t locate these reports either but he really should have included the time period from 2008 (he must have the resources to do so) to now, for at least the appearance of even handedness and transparency. But perhaps that would not have suited his ultimate purpose of partisan spinning.

    See the 2102 report below:-

    http://barbadosunderground.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/auditor-general-report-2012.pdf

    Read it and weep. It is an almost identical tale of woe to the selected tales from previous reports presented by Douglas in the chapeau post here. The reap of the public purse proceeds without let or hindrance. Six fuh one and half dozen fuh de uther.

    Anyone having the stomach to do so and with time to spare should also read the special reports of audits done by the department which are available on the web.


  14. Mr Boolani’s good friend was on the latest at 12:30 today sounding so sincere. Tomorrow they will restrict the authority of the PAC.Who the hell cares? Acronym for Protection Against Conviction. They are rubbing your shoulders, but who is greasing their palms? Let’s answer the call and join Mr Wood in a March. Dat mek nuff sense.


  15. See what I tell you.The BLP apologists keep asking for reports from 2008.

    Fellas can we at least discuss 1994 – 2008 and what this is costing us before we move on to 2008 to now.This fraud represents these loan payments that government is now struggling with every year and all this debt to GDP business that everyone keep yapping about.

    I have a very strong suspicion that any malfeasance found from 2008 will never be able to match the period under that Auditor General report listed here,that is the period 1994-2008,if only for the fact that by 2008 the treasury was empty and we were laden down with debt.

    Either way I am not happy that my taxpayers money is being wasted and used fraudulently.


  16. HH and Others; To be fair, however, it should be recognized that in practically all of the documented misfeances the paper trails do not reach the relevant Ministers. Rather, it seems to be some Chairmen of Boards and Accounts people are the ones compromised. However, I suspect that the reports between 2008 and 2012 might show some very significant changes in regard to where the paper trails for a number of gross misfeances led.


  17. Common-sense-is-not-common;

    Whuh yuh friten fuh? Looks like yuh don’t want the 2008-2012 continuation of the list to come out now. Yuh want tuh evaluate how we got here in 2013 then look at all the info from 2000 to now. just a pre-2008 study will not tell the true story.


  18. This is a damned disgrace. Thieving carried out at such a large scale.
    The DLP must have known about this for many years,yet refuses to act on the information to recover and prosecute those involved.

    When the audit is eventually carried on this present lot, I am one who will not be surprised if the same is being done under this administration as well.
    Every eligible voter should refuse to go to the poles when the next election is called, until INTEGRITY LEGISLATION is on the statue books.
    Every penny taken from the TAXPAYERS must and should be accounted for.
    Any public officer or MP found guilty of theft must and should be dealt with in the same manner as an ordinary man who breaks the law.

    This report tells me or should I say, confirms what most of us felt for many years that those persons wishing to become a Member of Parliament have only one desire and that is to become rich on the backs of public.
    If this DLP government refuses to prosecute those in the report, IT must be charged ‘just as guilty’ as the party who committed the crime.

    I must now add my voice to that of the PDC: “Down with the blasted BLP & DLP”

    Readers of this blog should be reminded of the late Prime Minister, David Thompson promises of implementing Integrity legislation within 100 days in office in 2008. This is 2014. Has this idea been entombed with him?


  19. The same shite I hear in 2008 before the elections. Crooks and thieves and forensic audits. No one lock up and the only forensic audit show who really thief Clico money.


  20. look none of the politicians on either side are all useless and un trustworthy,.
    this we all know.!
    my suggestion—–MR RANDALL WORRELL[JUDGE] should be made priminister forth with and he can pick his cabinate.
    he can be trusted .
    that is what has to be done.
    someone do something.that is my suggestion.


  21. Douglas

    What you calling my name for? I never asked, How did we get here? Why should I ? I already know the answer. The DEMS were out of power for 14 years and were so desperate for power that they lied, cheated and stole to win two elections. They had a winning strategy but didn’t have the foggiest idea about what it took to run a government. As I saId before they found themselves chewing on more than they could bite off.

    The good ship Barbados finds itself with a captain and crew that can’t sail and worse yet, they don’t have a compass and can’t see land on the horizon.


  22. Thank you David for the reports.I will be reading and also making my comments on the period from 2008 to present.However I will not be sidetracked by the BLP yardfowls who want to give the idea that every one else is dirty but they are squeaky clean so let’s move on,nothing to see here.

    There has always been some amount of corruption in government procurement etc but Owen Arthur and his BLP ministers took this to another level.Remember the Crab hill police station,Gems and rodney Wilkinson etc,Greenland,the Valley resource centre building that was given to Lammie craig even after he collected millions and did not finish St LeonardsSchool and got no penalty?

    Steupes and now the BLP want us to talk only about 2008 and onwards.Hell no,let us look at everything and put it on the table and see what the hell is going on in our country.


  23. @ Common sense is not common | February 4, 2014 at 5:23 AM |

    This request is to you and the “fair-minded” Bushie.
    Why doesn’t the Police and DPP charge and prosecute all the crooks and scumbags who, according to you, looted the treasury between 1994 and 2008?
    If you bring charges tomorrow you will have the miller’s 100% support. How about that?

    According to you all the evidence to incarcerate the political goons and crooks (and their friends in fraud) is clearly detailed in the AG’s report up to 2008. After all, flimsier evidence and cloudier legislation were used to bring charges against the senior management of the Nation Newspaper or to remove the CoP from office.
    Why not charge the politicians who participated in massive fraud up to 2008.
    If you do this, though, who will have to take into consideration what Mr. Integrity PM said in his contribution to the debate on the Integrity (the prevention of corruption in public office) legislation when he publicly denied any malfeasance by any of the honourable men and women in that august chamber and even exonerated all politicians past and present for ever participating in any acts or corruption, real or imagined.
    Given that kind of “Not Guilty” verdict are you, “without commonsense” and Bushie the two-faced monster, prepared to go against the PM’s position and deemed him a stranger to the facts?

    You must also take into account in your deliberations that you would also have to charge many senior public sector managers (aka accounting officers) who could have participated in the same massive frauds you so strongly know to have been committed up to 2008. Because as you hypocritically know (and as “are-we-there-yet” for certain) no politician in Bim can steal, commit fraud or receive kickbacks without the knowledge and collusion of permanent secretaries and other accounting officers.

    So if you plan to lockup the pols be also be prepared to build a new prison to accommodate the other white-collar crooks. Lock them all up, for sure!

    How about that, “not so common”, a fool following a damn(ed) BBE idiot like Bushie.

    Go and read the Financial Administration & Audit Act and Regulations and then come back to discuss the need for greater efficiency in the management of public finances in order to achieve greater economy and effectiveness in public administration.

    We must therefore take the more recent period 2008 to 2013 into account; not forgetting the public debt climbed from $4.7 billion to over $10 billion during that period with little to show by way of capital assets owned by the State.


  24. Ha Ha Ha
    ….Bushie like he got you unable to sleep when the night come Miller…
    BB!
    ….. All of wunna going pay…..you wait and see….
    Karma don’t sleep…..even if Freundy and the DPP does….


  25. @ Bush Tea | February 4, 2014 at 7:42 AM |
    “All of wunna going pay…..you wait and see….
    Karma don’t sleep…..even if Freundy and the DPP does….”

    Karma the bitch is already at work. Check the St. John Parish Church yard for buried audited evidence. Well encased for all to verify.
    Who will Karma bite next? David the hallucinating comedian or the down in the dumps lowe who has just lost 400 of his aids and expect to lose more when the NCC is forced to cut the fat and not grass.
    You tell us Bushie the fortuneteller appointed by his one and only BBE to save Bim from a Devaluation.
    Now that will be real karma Guyanese or Jamaican style!


  26. Ole People gots a lotta time pun dem hands to fiddle bout and read thes reports doah.

    Fortunately dese electronic types do not have the attendant dust and book lice to induce sneezing and give one asthma attacks as of before time but the reading, of these reports brings to light so many things, incredulous.

    “The agency (BTII) also reported that the Ministry of Finance had recently indicated that it no longer needed to show these amounts in its accounts…”

    I note that the writing/reporting style and grammatical construct of Leighton Trotman has improved over the years and that his style has improved in leaps and bounds!!

    Layout, content structure, language, inflection, (red) font, reports that show beyond the shadow of a doubt the malfeasance (a pretty word for teifing) of public sector, a statutory board staff/chairmen, against the against the peoples of Bim.

    They are killing us in the PSVs on the highways, they are killing us in our homes when they come a-tiefing and they are killing us with their onerous taxes and the theft of said taxes in plain sight.

    And who can we go to?

    Really what is our recourse?

    Certainly not the DPP Leacock? For he has shown that, depending on what colour you are, there is another type of justice meted out against the criminal, depending on the place in society the hand that is holding the glock comes from.

    Certainly one cannot go to the the Commissioner of Police a man who has ascended from a special breed of criminals, those that, while ostensibly upholding the law and catching the criminals, are themselves stealing the cellphones of their colleagues at the station/barracks or dipping into the coffers of moneys that are left in their charge at the various stations , oh sorry that is clerical officers right?

    Preachers sleeping with the congregation members, teachers sleeping with students, policemen raping single female tenants instead of investigating crimes perpetuated against said tenants, maidswho because they are phuvking the supervisor in the said government office are ruling the staff, politicians phuvking the people of the country, young men who rob you and then throw molotov cocktails in your stores, lawyers who take money from clients and use the fraternity to live free in BIM, doctors who leave medical instruments in your grandaughter belly until sepsis sets in and she dies, criminals armed to the teeth and a spirit of malaise that has us gripped in its fist and wont release us.

    THe revolution that we need is not one forged by M16’s and AK47’s but that where a few good men and women stand up and say enough.

    The 15 grand that you are paying me as a MP or whatever the france i am getting a month is enough for me and i, citizen of Bulbados, am satisfied to take this my legal compensation and deliver the services that i am gainfully employed for and to do credit to my nation wherever i may go.

    Poor insignificant men, devoid of any principles, slaves to their gunas, appointed above their level of competency every 5 years

    But hold on just a moment, so we get rid of this bunch of jokers in 2016, or sooner, if Lowe drop out, or any one of the rest of these big guts buffaloes, what do we replace them with?

    What is the character of those waiting in the offing?

    Kerrie “he who pelt so much lick into the Power girl” Simmonds, Eddie ‘cyan speak” Hinkson, his buddy Gline Clarke? here we are at 2014, fully aware of the characters of these miscreants in the waiting room, awaiting the departure of the worst government in the history of Bulbados, but seeking to replace them with what???


  27. This is not a D or B issue…..so then lets call a spade a spade…….fourteen years on continuous unbridle mangement is surely deserving of jail time…..would u not agree…..


  28. AC!!!

    My ole girlfriend/boyfriend, whatever (i en sure if it is you or you husband commenting)

    I did just talking bout you pun a nex blog heah pun BU….

    You finally agree that this is not a BLP or DLP issue whuloss it gine rain.. a mobaton uh rain…

    …unbridle(d) (mis)management… rather theft of public monies is indeed deserving of a prison term…but my colleague in cyberspace… who gine bring a case against them??

    It cyan be Sinckliar whu afta all he is the fox counting the chickens personified.

    Looka whu de Auditor General report say bout he “The agency also reported that the Ministry of Finance had recently indicated that it no longer
    needed to show these amounts in its accounts…”

    Whu if he was to lead de charge against dem miscreants, he would jes ha’ to lef de prison door open, spet in, after bringing in Michael lashes, John Whisper Boyce, de udder Headboy Boy Boyce feller and s res’ uh dem fellow un den lock de door.

    60 uh dem in one cell would be overpopulation and de UN whud have a field day bout we justice system incarcerating “honourable mens and womens, and in betweeners.

    Why i do believe dat felows like we Jonesing and Jerome wud like dem cramp up spaces wid menses pushing up pun dem behinds en ting

    No AC…

    We would not be able to pause at the 14 years of OSA, we would have to apply the policies of inclusion and collect DLP criminals befo’ and those of recent times…


  29. Yes i did say mangement .however “tongue in cheek”. the BLP brigade has not for one day concede that the BLP past management of the countries affairs has taken to us to a path of high and uncontrolled debt. Over and over again they have Corralled the praises of a country seemingly well managed for 14yrs however as one can clearly see accordingto auditors reports a story of mismangement is being told one they can.T deny


  30. If what we are seeing is correct and no one get put behind bars. Do tell the public what measures have been put in place to avoid such re-occurrence. If the Auditor General reports can be made public, why de hell is all the hush, hush regarding The PAC reports and now its so-called repeal of PAC Act to silence the commission.


  31. Piece said:

    “Why i do believe dat felows like we Jonesing and Jerome wud like dem cramp up spaces wid menses pushing up pun dem behinds en ting”

    Someone just mentioned that Jerome is sitting all prim and proper in the Senate fully believing that no one knows about his connection with Harris, Inniss and Bayview Hospital…..sadly mistaken Jerome.


  32. Does it add up to the millions David Thompson & Leroy Parris stole from CLICO, when will the people who put their life savings into CLICO get their money back? Some have already died without a penny given back to them. So when one starts to open a can of worms, please open all the tins.


  33. Suggest everyone read the Auditor Generals Report 2012 provided to the Speaker of the House on January 31, 2013 at

    http://www.bao.gov.bb/themes/marinelli/files/Auditor%20General%20Report%202012.pdf

    Introductory Comments, which could be described as disclaimers, include the following,,

    “The Office continues to have staffing shortages, Interviews were carried out during the year, but these are not expected to result in any increases since there is not a large available pool of auditors in the Country to draw upon. …….. I am again recommending that the authority to recruit staff should be delegated to the Office to expedite the process.”

    Some of the General Issues. include the following.

    “It has been five (5) years since Government has switched to from the cash to accrual basis for accounting, however, there continue to be considerable shortcomings in the accounts presented which have so far resulted in the Audit Office being unable to verify that the financial statements are presented fairly and in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting standards. There were numerous omissions from the financial statements presented, and these included over $150 million which was owed to the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

    There is a need for an urgent examination of the system of accounting currently practices by Government since, in many instances, there is no adherence to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards to which the Government has subscribed.

    The Public Accounts Committee is a Committee of Parliament established primarily to review the financial statements of state enterprises and all reports of the Auditor General that are tabled in Parliament.

    The role of the Public Accounts Committee is critical in the accountability cycle of Government. The committee can call on accounting officers and other public officials to explain issues reported in the audit reports and, if warranted, make recommendations to Parliament for corrective action. The Committee has, however, not reviewed any of the reports of the Auditor General for the past five (5) years,

    In my 2011 Report, I drew to Parliament’s attention the fact that a number of state agencies were paying pensions to former employees who were not entitled. A further review of this matter has revealed that little action has been taken to rectify the situation by statutory boards. …….. This situation has resulted in numerous persons being overpaid for a number of years”

    SO, the AG can’t get adequate staffing and can’t verify financial statements due to accounting shortcomings, and the PAC has not reviewed any of AG’s reports for for 5 years.

    What then is the point of having a PAC; or for that matter what is the point of having an AG if his reports are apparently totally ignored?

    And how can anyone lend money to Government if they cannot get financial statements in which they can place any confidence?

    The lunatics are running the asylum.

    The 2012 Report was delivered January 31, 2013. When will we see the 2013 Report.


  34. “Some of us surely have very short or convenient memories.” ….. Place yourself at the top of the list Douglas.
    Where were you, when from 1995 to 2008, I frequently read from the Auditor General’s report and lambasted the observation of rules in the breach? Where were you when I got calls – on air – stating that some of the issues I raised were “procedural’ and not “mal-administration”??
    Convenient memory? Mine is fine …. how is yours?


  35. @ Douglas: BTW … you want the tapes? I hear I keep a lot of them for my listening pleasure late at night!


    • @DJ

      Don’t waste time responding to DLP propaganda designed to distract and obfuscate. Have you noticed how your former trainee was omitted from the list? That should reveal all. Next general election will be very interesting,,,eeeny meeeney miney moh.


  36. Caswell

    You were right on two counts.

    The fellow is a total wanker. Oh dear – how do we manage to breed such people?
    My information today from someone inside the Housing Corporation is that most of the 300 were either appointed with the direct support of the previous Minister of Housing or were his relatives.


  37. This is clearly one of the reasons why Mottley don’t want any procedures to be set out for the PAC. With those reports to be investigated the Government cannot get a chance to even call a meeting. But to go through reports sequentially she would be busy with the information shown on BU

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