The Auditor General has called for a Police investigation into “poor or non-existent” control of public money directed to the Faith-Based Tourism initiative.

In his final report tabled in Parliament today, former Auditor General Larry Dennis also linked $20 million spent by the National Drug Commission over a five-year period to “fraudulent activity including payment of personal expenses”.

Mr. Dennis’ final annual report was released by Auditor General Heather Jacobs Matthews. It covers the work of the Office of the Auditor General up to February 29, 2009, and the accounts of the Government of Bermuda for the year ended March 31, 2008.

The former Auditor General said negligence of senior management to carry out their responsibilities created an “environment conducive to error, misappropriation and fraud”.

The report highlighted two issues for Police investigation:

l Poor or non-existent controls over the use of public money directed to Faith-Based Tourism and a lack of due-diligence and compliance with financial instructions by senior civil servants disbursing these funds. Faith-Based Tourism was awarded a contract in April 2007 in the amount of $400,000;

l A complete breakdown of internal controls and a pervasive lack of accountability for the expenditure of $20.2 million by the National Drug Commission over the five year period from 2002 to 2006 leading to a denial of opinion in each of those years. The former Auditor General found evidence of fraudulent activity including payment of personal expenses, and a serious lack of Board oversight.

Said Mrs. Jacobs Matthews: “In this final report of the former Auditor General, he also raises significant concerns with respect to the manner in which spending is controlled, especially for major capital projects.”

* For the full story see tomorrow’s Royal Gazette.