By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL Services Minister Melanie Griffin said further investigations will be conducted into the damning revelations highlighted by Auditor General Terrance Bastian’s report into the Department of Social Services which was tabled in the House of Assembly on Monday.

The report revealed weak internal controls in the department that created opportunities for fraud and waste.

“I anticipate that there will be further investigations, but I don’t wish to preempt what is happening,” Mrs Griffin said when asked about the finding that millions of dollars were paid to vendors without apparent formal authorisation from the director of the department as is required.

While some employees are already facing punishment for engaging in food coupon fraud, it is unclear if any senior management member will face repercussions for allowing as much as $3,682,636 in cheque requests to be processed without the director’s signature.

Pressed on the nature of the investigation she said would take place, Mrs Griffin didn’t confirm if it will be an internal or external investigation.

“I want to say that we have already began to implement the recommendations from the auditor general to modernise the system that we have been plagued with all these years and there will be an investigation, but I don’t want to preempt anything,” she said.

One of Mr Bastian’s more significant findings is that some staff members at the department participated in a fraudulent scheme in which they used food coupons intended for Bahamians on welfare to purchase groceries.

Asked about this, Mrs Griffin said officials found the department’s reliance on food coupons overwhelming, hence their move to digitise the system through the creation of prepaid debit cards.

“Over the years, successive governments have known that the paper intensive system we have with food coupons was open to opportunities for fraud so that is why we would’ve ensured that we put in place social safety net reform which included the prepaid debit card, eradicating the printing of food coupons which we expect will reduce the level of fraud or opportunities for fraud,” she said.

“The reform process also included the strengthening of the Department of Social Services. The food coupons have been eliminated. We don’t print them anymore. Only in the Family Islands on a limited basis we use them but we’re moving toward the card in the Family Islands.”

Nonetheless, Mr Bastian’s audit raised the question of whether employment conditions at the department prompted some employees to commit food coupon fraud.

Mr Bastian found that many employees at DOSS were underemployed, with 172 of the 515 employees classified under the Unemployment Assistance Programme.

The programme was designed to give clients of the DOSS temporary employment opportunities for a period of three months until they sought full-time gainful employment.

However, 70 per cent of those employees were employed with the DOSS for five years or more, raising questions about the government’s failure to regularise them into the public system.

Former State Minister for Social Development Loretta Butler-Turner told The Tribune yesterday that someone should be held accountable for what appears to be a poor oversight and management lapses that were detailed in Mr Bastian’s report.

“There are many civil servants that are doing their jobs extremely well, working in the parametres of the law but in every instance you tend to have individuals that will not abide by the law,” she said. “This is probably an instance where you have a small group of persons doing this and that small group should be held accountable for whatever they have done.”

Mrs Butler-Turner said the finding that top officials in the DOSS failed to sign off on large payments to vendors “shocking,” questioning whether checks and balances were in place.

As for the food coupon fraud, she said: “It’s certainly disheartening to me to see that in these hard economic times where we have individuals below the property level, to know that there seems to be some kind of disconnect in getting the public funds expended to alleviate poverty.

“One thing I would stand by is you don’t take from the poor. I don’t believe it is a widespread practice but there must be an investigation. There are not proper checks and balances. We must make sure consequences follow and that protocols not being employed need to be employed. We must make sure the people’s money is being used for what it is earmarked for.”

The audit covered the period July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015.