Corruption? ‘Contractors paid in full, without completion of Wall works’- Auditor General
To ward off the fall out and the seriousness of the Special Report, Hon Walwyn held a hastily arranged press conference on Tuesday, October 9, 2018, fearful of leaks of the Special Report, claiming he did nothing wrong and saying the Office of the Auditor General, does not have the resources to investigate his controversial wall.
Investigation
Former Governor, John S. Duncan OBE ordered an investigation into the huge cost of the small wall around the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS), a project that was under the domain of the Minister.
In her Special Report dated August 24, 2018, Ms Webster noted what the public has been saying for months, “the project manner of execution and its outcome underscore why procurement rules are required.”
Ms Webster said in the report that Mr Walwyn’s ESHS wall project, “gives an appearance of an agency that sought to avoid the procurement requirements that have been established to secure value for money on government projects.”
Ms Webster noted that something was wrong with Hon Walwyn’s “wide-scale use of work orders that are intended to be used for small one-of jobs” and his “use of un-vetted contractors and his exclusion of other government agencies,” was troubling.
The Special Report also stated that on the controversial ‘pet’ wall Project of Mr Walwyn his “failure to involve pertinent government agencies eliminated checks that may have identified over-costing on the bill of quantities.”
It noted that the Ministry’s “division of the project into multiple parts eliminated possible economies of scale and further escalated the cost to government.”
Did Hon Walwyn break the law?
In the report, Ms Webster also wrote that the “use of unlicensed contractors constitutes a breach of Trade License Regulations (by the individuals and by the Government). It also may have facilitated breaches of the Inland Revenue and Social Security requirements.”
Another bomb shell from the $1.6 M wall was that “payments were made in full on contract segments that were incomplete.”
The Auditor General pointed to Hon Walwyn when she noted, “the subjective manner with which contractors were selected and assigned, introduces issues of inappropriate political influence in the procurement process.”
This would violate the Public Finance Management Regulations (PMFR), as the report stated, “no evidence was presented to show that this was open, impartial, on merit or in-keeping with PFMR.”
How will violations be addressed?
In her recommendations, Ms Webster noted that “individuals responsible for the over costing and loss of economy on this project should be made accountable.”
She also recommended that “contractors who received full payment without completion of the works, should be required to complete or be held ineligible for further government work.”
In his press conference yesterday, Hon Walwyn went after the Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL) again, who told the House of Assembly (HoA), in 2016 that the cost of the ESHS Wall was $1.6M.
The Minister claimed at his Tuesday press conference, it is not so and the wall was around $914,971.
Mr Walwyn had already admitted that the wall was $1.6 M in the same HoA, but tried to spin the price tag down again blaming the media at times.
First of a series on the report of the Elmore Stoutt High School Wall
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41 Responses to “Corruption? ‘Contractors paid in full, without completion of Wall works’- Auditor General ”
Let's hope that the AG is not playing politics. It is said she's a big VIP supporter. I don't support rumours so I will give the AG the benefit of the doubt.
Fairness? .... Lol
And when they have power and authority they don't give a rat's behind about you and me.
Shame.
Please intervene before this man cheats or brainwashes more young people and he becomes premier
He needs to be held accountable sooner rather than later
If anyone should have known better than to get unlicensed contractors etc the Minister of Education/ Man in charge of Prisons/ Seasoned Businessman/ Lawyer should have known better
He show what he think of kids by building a damn wall around your institution of learning and the puppets st the ministry acting like moo moos just like him
1. He give contracts to persons without valid trade licenses or any proper qualification to carry out the project
2. Persons were paid before completing work.
3. 70 contractors were unnecessary for such a small project
4. All this was done just before the last election
Change the AG if you like but those changes and breaches will never change.