Auditor-General Heather Jacobs Matthews has pledged to complete four years’ worth of outstanding annual reports from her office by the time she retires next month.

The law requires that the reports are released each year by November 30 or soon after but the last one to be published was in 2010.

Yesterday, Mrs Matthews told The Royal Gazette she would issue a combined annual report and a special report — her fourth in six years — when the House of Assembly reconvenes on November 13.

And Governor George Fergusson, to whom the Auditor-General reports, suggested the fault for the delay lay outside her office.

He said: “I have kept in close touch with the Auditor-General about the difficulties she has faced in obtaining timely information relevant to reports. But I understand that a compilation report will issue very shortly.”

Mrs Matthews is due to leave her role as the Island’s independent fiscal watchdog on November 15.

She told this newspaper: “I can advise that we will release a special report and a combined annual report once the House is in session. I also expect that a number of financial statements will be tabled by the respective ministers in the upcoming session.”

Mrs Matthews, who audits the finances of publicly-funded bodies, said on October 1 last year: “We do acknowledge the delays in publishing the annual report on the work of the Auditor-General due to staffing challenges. “As a result, we have primarily concentrated on finalising the audits of the various government entities including the [Government’s] consolidated fund. The outstanding annual reports will be published by the end of this calendar year.”

The reports were not released by the end of 2014 and on September 27 this year, Mrs Matthews said: “It was expected we would issue reports at the end of last year. However, there were delays for various reasons, as we must follow professional standards and protocols. Nevertheless, we expect them to be published very shortly.”

The Audit Act 1990 requires the Auditor-General to make a report every financial year which includes information on any concerns they have with the use of public funds or accounting irregularities.

Mrs Matthews has been Auditor-General since September 2009. The missing annual reports are for the financial years 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Also outstanding for the same four fiscal years are audited financial statements for Bermuda Hospitals Board. The lack of audited financials, according to BHB, explains why it also has not released an annual report since 2010. A BHB spokeswoman said last month: “With regards to our audited financial statements, we look forward to the Auditor-General’s department finalising our outstanding financial information. We are required to wait for the Auditor-General and her staff to complete their process before we can produce our public annual reports.”

Asked about BHB’s statements, Mrs Matthews said she “cannot comment on individual auditees outside of my normal reporting in accordance with the Audit Act”.

She launched a review into BHB’s finances in February 2013, the results of which have yet to be made public.

During her six years in office, the auditor has released three special reports: in 2010 on the new TCD building and emissions testing programme, in 2011 on the misuse of public funds at Bermuda Land Development Corporation and the Attorney-General’s Chamber and in 2014 on Port Royal Golf Course.

She has also probed other issues involving the spending of public funds, including asking the Supreme Court in 2010 to determine if government was right to have given Coco Reef Resort a 125-year lease.

In July 2010, she accused the finance ministry of denying her full access to government’s computerised financial system. And in February 2011, Mrs Matthews was reported as saying her office would finish 60 outstanding reports within the next ten months, starting 2012 with a clean slate.

Page 4: John Barritt column