The Government has defended consultancy payments made to board members of the Bermuda Land Development Company and accused Heather Jacobs Matthews, the Auditor General, of failing the Bermuda public.In response to Mrs Matthews’ scathing Special Report on the Misuse of Public Funds the Progressive Labour Party suggested the Auditor General had relied more on ‘subjective commentary’ than focusing on the facts.Insisting that the Bermuda public deserved better the PLP urged the Island’s residents to read the report in its entirety to get some perspective on what Mrs Matthews had described as ‘a deplorable situation’.“The Progressive Labour Party, under all Leaders, and including all Ministers and Members of Parliament, supports and is willing to assist the Office of the Auditor General in its role,” the PLP said in a statement yesterday.“That being said, we call on the Auditor General to be objective in her reports and focus on the facts as opposed to subjective commentary.“The Bermudian public deserves objectivity, and the Auditor General must do better in that regard.”In her report, the Auditor General had revealed that the BLDC, a publicly funded body, had made consultancy payments to its own chairman and deputy chairman.However, while the PLP acknowledge that Mrs Matthews was factually correct in regard to the payments being made, they say she deliberately ignored the fact that two independent bodies, accounting firm KPMG and law firm Trott and Duncan, had both concluded that those payments were lawful.They also point to the comments made by the Ministry of Public Works in Appendix 2 of the report where the ministry highlight their concerns: “The Minister (Derrick Burgess) was very concerned that the opinions of KPMG and Trott & Duncan were not acknowledged or accepted by the Auditor.”The PLP go on to claim that far from acting unlawfully they acted within the bye laws of the BLDC and any action that was taken on the back of the Auditor General’s concerns were taken through ‘an abundance of caution’.Yesterday’s statement goes on to say that the Auditor General “has acknowledged that our Leader and Premier took prompt action once she was made aware of the Auditor’s concerns” and that Government “invoked the ultimate sanction of accountability by replacing the former Board on May 22, 2011”.It continues: “We emphasise that the actions taken by the Board were determined to be in accordance with the bye laws of the company.“The above facts demonstrate that the PLP Government has acted out of an abundance of caution to protect the actual and perceived integrity of the public purse, even in the instance where there has not been any illegal activity.”Mrs Matthews also raised questions over the use of taxpayers’ money to fund a private legal action for then Premier Ewart Brown and Derrick Burgess. The PLP once again urged the public to read the full report, which includes a section of Government responses and said they believed they were entirely within their rights to make those payments.“Whilst we accept that the opinion of the Auditor General may vary from that of the PLP Government, we again emphasize that these payments have not been deemed to be illegal or unlawful,” said the statement.“We encourage all voters to read the report in its entirety to ensure they get the perspective of both the Auditor General and the relevant government department.“We also call on the media to report the contents of the report in full, and give equal balance to the Auditor’s comments and the Government’s response.”