NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Auditors hired by the Davis administration have found numerous deficiencies in the operation of the National Food Distribution Programme.
The programme was established under the Minnis administration to help people in need during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Philip Davis tabled ATI Company Limited’s audit report in the House of Assembly yesterday.
Auditors found that a draft emergency food distribution plan was not appropriately designed and implemented and said there was no evidence that “controls operated effectively for financial reporting and monitoring.”
The report said: “Key business policies and procedures were not documented or were not appropriately documented in order to provide appropriate guidelines, standards, and necessary reference in the performance of the food programme’s operations.
“There was no evidence provided related to the validation or monitoring of vouchers issued. Detailed request for weekly vouchers remained outstanding as at the state of this report. Participants did not appear to have received and/or maintained sufficient and appropriate documentation and support related to the task force’s and the food programme’s execution and operations, specifically for: reports monitoring and reconciling beneficiary distributions per their assigned zones (reports requested remained outstanding as at the date of this report from NGOs); expenditures incurred and settled (insufficient support or no support provided for some samples tested); minutes from meetings held (no minutes provided).”
“There were no minutes maintained, as such, no support was provided to corroborate weekly meetings, instructions given/received, approvals agreed/granted, and changes made throughout the food programme. Untimely submission of data or no data submission was pervasive, and items remained outstanding from all entities as at the date of this report. There was no evidence observed to support readily available data and documentation. There was no evidence of controls in place to address data accuracy and completeness…There was no evidence of the task force’s policies and procedures in relation to vendor selections for the food programme.”
Auditors also said no evidence was provided to support “the provision of weekly reports to the Office of the Prime Minister as detailed in the emergency plan”.
The report said: “No evidence was provided to corroborate financial accounting and reporting submissions to the government of The Bahamas as detailed in the emergency plan.”
The auditors also found that review and reconciliation procedures appeared to be ineffective/inadequate based on errors that were noted during their work.
Discussing the audit in the House of Assembly, Davis said the government continues to have difficulty getting answers about the operations of the food task force.
He noted that requests of how $53m was spent have not been answered.
“To be clear, documents have been provided, but they are not documents that answer the most important questions posed,” he said.
“To make an analogy, if someone asks, ‘How much did your car cost?”, and the car owner answers, “my car is blue,” an answer of sorts has been provided, but not one of great relevance to the questioner.”
Davis said he has no personal issue with the people or NGOs involved.
“I do find it a matter of great concern that a programme like this was run out of the previous government’s Office of the Prime Minister with almost no controls or oversight,” he said.
