Reports of the Auditor-General can be challenging and heavy reading, Mr Editor, the more so for the average person. But that doesn’t make them dull or any less important.

On the contrary; and to be clear, I am not referring to those “special” reports, which the Auditor-General publishes from time to time on projects that have gone, well, horribly wrong, and that’s putting it mildly, I know, like the Port Royal Golf Course, for example. They easily capture headlines and attention — and quite rightly.

No, I have in mind reports of the Auditor-General on the ‘Work of the Office of the Auditor-General’ and on the ‘Accounts of the Government of Bermuda’. You would like to think that these reports are published annually. They are not. The last one was for the financial years 2008-09 and 2009-10 and that report was released in December 2010. Five years ago, folks, which tells you a fair bit about just what needs fixin’ and where.

For those of us who want to see greater transparency and accountability, not to mention value for money (and that’s all of us who are taxpayers), our government has got to do far, far better than this. It would appear that existing practices and procedures leave a lot to be desired. Improvement is long overdue.

But let me be clear, again, this is not intended as a criticism of the Auditor-General and her office. My impression is that they are overloaded with work — aside from government accounts, they have an additional 60 annual audits of government-controlled entities to conduct, some of which are way, way behind in their reporting, and this because of a dearth of proper records.

On top of this, the office is woefully understaffed for the job that it is meant to perform.

The Office of Auditor-General not only has to catch up but get current, and stay current, to be anything close to effective.

Their need for help was once recognised by the present government, when it was in Opposition.

One of the key planks in its good governance election platform was to “fully support the Auditor-General’s role as the watchdog of the people’s money”.

To this end, the One Bermuda Alliance also said that as the government it would ensure that the PAC (Parliamentary Accounts Committee) had “all the resources” it needed to assist both the offices of the Contractor General (another promise, as yet unfulfilled) and the Auditor-General in their review of government expenditure. If only.

Meanwhile, we only recently learnt through your news columns, thank you very much, that the Government’s own office for independent financial oversight was understaffed — and may still be.

We know there is a hiring freeze (or meant to be) but this may truly be a case where we should spend a dollar to save our taxpayer dollars from being wasted, misapplied and/or misspent — or worse, unaccounted for.

We don’t always need to be learning about financial calamities long after they have occurred. We need to get current and catch any missteps or errors or breaches of financial instructions as they occur or, even better, before they occur.

This should be standard operating procedure for current expenditure and major capital projects. Period. Think airport project, for example. Or the America’s Cup. Or the Acute Care Wing.

Without the commitment to change, we will likely continue to get more of the same, looking backward and not forward when it comes to the spending of taxpayers’ dollars.

I wonder, for instance, how many critical items will remain outstanding and awaiting action when the next “annual” report of the Auditor-General is produced (soon, I hope).

I share with you a quick sample from the last report:

• Some 70-plus recommendations aimed at shoring up deficiencies in internal controls, dating back as far as 1993, listed as awaiting action

• Some 38 government-controlled entities that collectively have 110 years of financial statements still to produce

• The “deplorable and unacceptable” state of accounting and reporting of the Government’s pension funds, which total in excess of $1 billion (or are supposed to)

• Continuing delays in the preparation and review of month-end bank reconciliations — control weaknesses that in one instance in 2004 led to the misappropriation of $1.9 million; and, incidentally, what steps have been taken to collect that?

Check to see where there have been any improvements when the next report is published.

It is certainly what our MPs should do and, more importantly, act upon — and that, too, Mr Editor, will provide further insight into just what needs fixin’.

Early impressions

Mr Editor, of the recent Canadian election, the sweeping victory of young Justin Trudeau and the toppling of a sitting prime minister and his Conservative government — and this by a Liberal party left for dead after the previous vote:

• Nasty, negative campaigning (personal, too) doesn’t always work; building yourself up by tearing your opponent down is a poor and unconvincing commendation

• Ditto for failing to deliver on that which you promised to do in Opposition: but instead of democratic and parliamentary reform, and opening the system of governance to make for greater transparency and accountability, Stephen Harper and his party found ways to close it

• And along came a youthful, credible opponent with a positive message and a vision, who promised the change Mr Harper couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver, and around whom voters, the disillusioned and the discouraged, rallied.

A familiar story eh, Mr Editor? But whether this is of any relevance to Bermuda, I leave to our readers to discern.