Vexed Bermoothes

Bermuda’s Auditor General is speaking out again about the political attempts to intimidate and interfere with his work.

He points out that the Auditor role is protected by the Constitution and the Audit Act 1990 which states that “the auditor is not subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority in the exercise of his functions”.  But in practice, Bermuda’s implementation has allowed such interference (such as the sudden relocating of offices last year and later episodes of arrest and harassment).

It is time to beef up the independence of the Auditor General’s office, as is the norm in most sophisticated countries, by:

• Establishing the independence of the Auditor General’s office with specific legislation.
  
• Letting it operate its own bank account, payments and payroll processing systems.
• Allowing the Auditor General to negotiate and run its own office and technology arrangements.

Strengthening the Office of the Auditor General was a long-held PLP promise when the party took office in 1998.  It’s time to make good on that.

It is disturbing that half of the 42 Bermuda Government audits conducted in 2007 receiving ‘qualified’ or ‘denied’ opinions because information deficiencies prevented auditors from rendering an opinion.  There is no accountability there.  In the corporate world this would be A Very Bad Thing.

The PLP and Government take the criticism badly and turn it into a political tussle and game of coverup.   But this is a fixable problem.  Let’s stop pretending that this is about race or personalities.  Bermuda has seen a vast and dramatic growth in the size of Government – and our governance has not kept up.

If we really want to be The Gold Standard™ then we must fix this situation.