Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, declared himself “astounded” at the state of the Bermuda Land Development Company that he discovered upon taking office.

Colonel Burch told the House of Assembly that the BLDC’s finances for the year 2011 had not been submitted because it had not held an Annual General Meeting since 2011.

The last audited accounts tabled at an AGM are the audited accounts for the year ending March 31, 2009.

The auditing of the 2010 and 2011 accounts “have only

recently been completed by the office of the Auditor-General”, he said.

A sanction is required from the Registrar of Companies for the years in which there were no audited financial statements.

Saying the BLDC was in “serious breach of financial regulations”, Colonel Burch said he was “astounded” that the Auditor-General, which had “doggedly went after this party when we were in government”, had not conducted audits over five years, and had not permitted the company to seek redress from an outside auditing firm.

“I trust the Parliamentary oversight committee of this office will conduct a full investigation,” he added.

Opposition leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin pointed out that three years of BLDC finances were under the purview of the Progressive Labour Party’s administration.

Colonel Burch responded that it was “still inexcusable that, five years later, the accounting still has not been submitted”.

• To read Colonel Burch’s statement in full, click on the PDF under “Related Media”