By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis administration is still not ready to say how much taxpayers paid for forensic audits into government corporations.

Asked yesterday, Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said Bahamians will learn how much audits into Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and the Water & Sewerage Corporation (WSC) cost when those corporations complete and publish their financial reports.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis' Press Secretary Anthony Newbold, nonetheless, has repeatedly referred reporters to Works Minister Desmond Bannister and WSC Chairman Adrian Gibson for information on the cost of the recently released WSC audit, which chronicled financial wastage and irregularities at the utility provider. A similar audit into BPL was released last year.

Mr Turnquest said payments to auditor EY for the audits did not come from the Public Treasury when asked by a reporter during a Ministry of Finance press conference yesterday for information on the figures.

"Recognise that both institutions are quasi-governmental agencies, state owned enterprises," he said.

"They are governed by their own governing agreements, so they pay their own expenditures; that doesn't necessarily come before us.

"We'll get the financial reports just as you'll get the financial reports when they are laid before Parliament and we'll all be able to see what's up. They're not paid by central government."