This editorial has been corrected.Premier Paula Cox has rightly said she wants to improve levels of transparency in Government.This is not only the right thing to do on its own merits, but is badly needed for her Government after the previous administration flouted rules on tendering and gained an unsavoury reputation for cronyism.With a general election looming, Ms Cox has been at pains to prove that those episodes are a thing of the past and that the PLP is different now.So it is an embarrassment for Ms Cox and her administration to have her Government’s handling of the Auditor’s Annual Report criticised.What’s worse, Ms Cox’s own response to that criticism has now been questioned and serious doubts over its veracity have been raised by Auditor General Heather Matthews.Mrs Matthews wrote to Speaker of the House of Assembly Stanley Lowe in early December to explain that the Audit Committee had not approved the Reports. That letter, read by Mr Lowe in the House of Assembly on December 9, said a conflict of interest on the part of the chairman of the committee had delayed proceedings and when a new chairman was appointed, the necessary meeting of the committee had not taken place when not enough members showed up.This matters because the Report of the Auditor General on the financial statements of the Bermuda Government cannot be tabled in the House of Assembly, and therefore made public, until the committee has seen them.To date, the Reports of the Auditor General for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 financial years are still not public, although the audited financial statements themselves have been released.After Mr Lowe read out the letter, the Premier stated she was disappointed Mrs Matthews had not contacted the chairman of the committee before “prematurely” writing to the Speaker. As a result she had written to the Governor, to whom the Auditor General reports.But Mrs Matthews rightly pointed out that she was legally obliged to write to Mr Lowe when it was clear that the Audit would not be ready by November 30. Far from writing prematurely, Mrs Matthews had no choice.Ms Cox also said that the chairman of the Audit Committee, Ronald Simmons, had been replaced once the issue of a conflict of interest had been raised and a new chairman appointed immediately. She also said there were no other conflicts.But Mrs Matthews revealed the new chairman of the committee, Raymond Madeiros, had since identified another potential conflict of interest concerning another member.And she also said attempts to get the committee to meet since July had been unsuccessful, with a meeting scheduled for October 24 having to be cancelled when only two of the five members who said they would attend actually showed up.This may not seem important, but it is. It means that the last Auditor’s Reports on Government finances date back to March 30, 2008, almost three years ago.Given what the community does know about the state of public finances and the budget deficits that have been identified, that is very worrying. There may be deficiencies in how Government runs its affairs. But no one is the wiser because the reports remain outside the public domain.The Opposition has suggested that this is a deliberate attempt to hide bad news. This seems unlikely as it would require a pretty broad conspiracy of the committee, many of whom are public figures and whose backgrounds are disparate. But the effect is the same.The Bermuda public deserves better and Ms Cox has done herself no favours by downplaying a serious matter while shooting the messenger.