Auditor General Larry Dennis said his investigation into the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) produced no indisputable proof that kickbacks and other fraudulent activity had taken place by officials - but nor could he dispel it.

In his report given to Premier Jennifer Smith, he said if kickbacks were happening, there was no record of them in BHC accounts. However, he said kickbacks could take many forms and would not necessarily have to be registered at all

Therefore, he said it was for the Police to now pursue the matter in their inquiry.

Despite there being no collaboration for allegations of kickbacks and favours to BHC officials, he said: “The investigation, however, has not dispelled these allegations. The poor internal control environment and the apparent culture of the corporation were certainly not conducive to mitigating the risk of wrongdoing by corporation officials.”

Mr. Dennis said he had no access to the records of contractors and could not require that they provide him with information, and he said neither did he have access to the personal records of corporation officials.

But the Auditor General said indicators for the possibility of kickbacks could be things such as contracts being awarded without obtaining a selection of competitive bids or quotations; purchase orders being issued for apparently excessive prices; and payment for overruns without sive prices; and payment for overruns without evidence to justify and support them. However, he said the fact that all of these things did happen frequently within BHC did not prove that kickbacks existed.

They could, equally, be the result of gross mismanagement, he said.

Other possible symptoms or enablers of wrongdoing by officials could include lax control over expenditures, duplicate payments, concentration of duties in one person, and a climate within an organisation that seemed to tolerate inappropriate behaviour, said Mr. Dennis.

He added: “Many of these apply to the Housing Corporation. Furthermore, with regard to tolerating inappropriate behaviour, the Corporation has in recent years dismissed two staff members respectively suspected of stealing corporation property and receiving kickbacks.

“Yet, in neither case has the Corporation demonstrated its intolerance for such activities by prosecuting the (alleged) offenders.”

Mr. Dennis pointed out in his report that a number of BHC officials were apparently operating sideline businesses, at least partly, from BHC offices and no [evidence could be found to indicate that these activities had been sanctioned, as required by the Government's Code of Conduct.