TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) Secretary for Finance Dr. Anslem London in his 2007 Budget presentation made a surprising call for the Auditor General’s Department to do a selective auditing of the Division of Works in the THA.

He had cited issues of financial reconciliation irregularities as the reason for his request.

But many in Tobago feel that a long overdue comprehensive audit of all the THA departments by the Auditor General’s Department is what is needed. Concerned THA insiders have been pointing out that since the People’s National Movement (PNM) took control of the administration of the THA from the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) regime under Hochoy Charles over six years ago, annual audits of the THA books has literally ceased. It was a TnT Mirror exclusive that first brought this issue to the front burner earlier this year.

Mirror continues to be inundated with reports from concerned THA officials of rampant corruption, excessive financial mismanagement and tremendous wastage in several departments of the THA.

“We usually hear a particular secretary talking about financial prudence and fiscal responsibility in his public utterances, but it sounds empty and hallow based on the way this PNM administration of the THA is operating,” opined one source.

“Under the present scenario, they are making Hochoy with his ADDA and Ringbang financial misadventures look like a saint,” the source said. He pointed at several matters under the present PNM regime that have been left unresolved for several years.

“We had the issue of the missing THA cheques during the first term of the current administration.

“Then we had a well-publicised report of THA cheques of over $5 million that were made to a dummy company called Kadds Construction surfacing at a bank in South Trinidad.

“To date, nothing has come out from the so-called investigations that had been launched into those issues,” the source said.

He also pointed at the failed THA Medical Transcription project which was the brainchild of the Secretary of Finance Dr. London.

“The entire project has turned into a monumental financial fiasco with disturbing reports about a major rip-off in the procurement of computer equipment for the centre from a foreign company,” added the source.

“Earlier this year the THA signed an MOU with a Trinidad-based company to diversify the operations of the transcription centre into an international call-in service, but to date we have not received any updates about the state of this collaboration and the 2007 budget was conspicuously silent on it,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Mirror was told about an administrator of a particular department who, in the space of a few weeks, moved his office from one location to another and then back to the previous location.

“The office was renovated and over $150,000 in office equipment was purchased from a Trinidad company to facilitate the return of this very “busy” administrator,” the THA officer said.

According to the source, one desk was quoted at a whopping $30,000.

“The police were also called in to investigate the mysterious disappearance of two brand new air-condition units that were purchased by the department,” the source added.

The million-dollar question is: who really has the call on the Auditor General to make a move to recommence the statutory obligation of annual audits of the THA financial records?