By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

HOUSE of Assembly Speaker Dr Kendal Major said he sees no fault in the process the Public Accounts Committee is taking to get answers about the scathing findings from the Urban Renewal’s Small Home Repairs Programme that are in an audit by Auditor General Terrance Bastian.

The controversial Small Home Repairs Programme report notes that payments to contractors for more than $170,000 of work was not completed or done, that there was no competitive bidding for the home repair contracts and the contractors were not required to have proof of all-risk insurance.

Meanwhile, the auditor’s report on Urban Renewal found that the programme’s internal controls are “weak,” leaving the initiative open to “abuse.”

After criticising the report as “unfair” last week, Urban Renewal co-chairs Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and Algernon Allen refused to appear for interviews before the PAC on Thursday, citing prior engagements.

They added that they would appear in the future, once the report is taken off the table of discussion, because of their belief that due parliamentary process has not been followed.

They faced being subpoenaed to appear before the PAC if they do not go willingly.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, Dr Major said: “I want you to know that the process is moving along appropriately in order to seek and extract information that the PAC deems important and critical to properly investigating the workings of any particular programme. That process is being meted out and it’s moving along as we speak in the sense that the chairman of the PAC is preparing a report or request. He would write the Speaker indicating the challenge that he has faced and request that we consider that either a subpoena is issued or through the office of the Speaker, operated by the clerk of Parliament, that a resolution is made.”

Mrs Pratt and Mr Allen have said that the audit has not gone through proper parliamentary channels because it has not been tabled in Parliament. They have also said that the audit is incomplete.

Mr Major, however, said this is a “misunderstanding.”

“This report does not have to be tabled,” he said. “This report was requested of the auditor general for a special period and is not like the annual year end reports.”

He added: “This report is not a draft. To my understanding it’s the final report and it doesn’t have to be debated.”

Dr Major said a subpoena could be sent either by the PAC or through his own office, although he acknowledged that the process that decides the way subpoenas are issued is ambiguous.

He said he believes both Mrs Pratt and Mr Allen are “decent, loyal and recognise the rules,” adding that he expects them to comply with the PAC’s demands once the misunderstanding over the matter is cleared up.

He insisted that the rules of the House would govern the process by which subpoenas are issued and not his own personal judgments about the matter.

The co-chairs’ letter to the PAC said: “The process which the Public Accounts Committee has pursued is not appropriate at this time in respect of this report and is an abuse of process. The draft report pre-empted the established parliamentary procedure and legality.

“We are advised that the audit report of the Urban Renewal Commission has not yet been presented to the minister of finance or to the Cabinet of The Bahamas, nor has it been laid on the table of the House of Assembly, as are the appropriate and legal steps to be taken; and as such, we cannot participate in an inappropriate and illegal process.

“However, when co-chair Pratt returns from her convalescence, and an appropriate meeting is scheduled by the committee, we are ready and willing to address Urban Renewal Commission’s matters, which do not involve the purported auditor general’s report until due process in relation to the report occurs.”