Oversight of –constructionThe report says prescribed checks and balances were eroded in the oversight of construction of the project.Financial Instructions state that all capital development projects, with the exception of minor works, must be the responsibility of Works and Engineering.Financial Secretary Donald Scott has said responsibility passed to the Ministry of Tourism and Transport when specialised expertise was required to resurface the airport runways around ten years ago.But the report states: “Your committee requested sight of the document authorising this change. No such document could be found.”It says the Auditor General has found the oversight role of Works and Engineering cannot be legally transferred without an amendment to Financial Instructions.It adds: “No one in the Ministry of Finance appeared to be cognisant of the potential conflicts of interests that might arise from an operating Government department also having supervisory authority over its own capital projects.“Finance appears to have simply allowed MTT to proceed as if this was normal.”BEC, the contractor, was controlled by CCC, the subcontractor. In one example, an engineer submitted an application for a million dollar change order, and BEC approved it the next day.“It was highly unusual, and unlikely that proper due diligence was carried out for such a large change order in such a short period of time,” states the report.Cabinet Secretary and Transport Permanent Secretary Marc Telemaque was asked why his Ministry had disobeyed a Cabinet conclusion that required the satellite facilities to be put out to tender. He pointed to an older decision that a single vendor for emissions control would be selected.The report states the Ministry acted ultra vires to Financial Instructions, adding: “The Ministry chose to ignore the most recent Cabinet instruction, and tried to use a previous decision as cover for its actions.”Ms Cox replied that the Approved Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for 2002/03 stated that the accounting responsibility for Transport’s capital projects falls outside Works and Engineering.Responding to the conflict of interest claim, she said: “The logic of this text makes no sense. It argues that if any department manages its own capital projects then it is open to conflicts.“That would mean that Works and Engineering could not manage its own projects.”She said Government insists the projects are managed by people with the relevant skills and capacity, who must abide by the existing rules.Ms Cox added that all change orders were valid and were documented, reviewed, justified and certified by the certifying engineer.