By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute’s (BTVI) immediate past president yesterday said “egregious systemic deficiencies” that resulted in staff being “disciplined” had been cured during his time in office.

Dr Robert Robertson, in a written letter to Tribune Business responding to the findings of the Auditor General’s BTVI audit, said he and management had put an end to cash payments - “especially on the Family Islands” - and halted the “improper acceptance” of funds by employees. He pointed out that the 2016 financial accounts, which he and his team inherited, had received a “denial of opinion” - one of the most serious qualifications an external auditor can make.

Asserting that BTVI was now “in a far more sustainable financial position” following a significant expansion of its courses, and had been on track to deliver “a record budget surplus” for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, he also addressed the Auditor General’s Office finding that some of its 135 staff had been overpaid by almost $100,000 over the ten months to end-July 2020.

Dr Robertson, in his letter published on Page 18B today, explained that this sum relates to “overload payments” provided to staff who were asked to teach courses beyond their contract workload. He described this as “a common practice” in academic and teaching circles, and likened it to overtime payments that are required by Bahamian law.

The Auditor General’s report covered the three fiscal years between July 1, 2018, and end-June 2021, and the former president said many of the deficiencies it identified had been inherited from previous Boards and management teams and subsequently rectified during his watch.

“It is important to note that many deficiencies identified in the review and October 20 story relate to the periods prior to fiscal 2020, and have since been resolved. Moreover, the much more egregious systemic deficiencies leading to a ‘denial of opinion’ by the independent auditors in 2016 have been addressed prospectively since fiscal 2019,” Dr Robertson wrote.

“For example, accepting cash, particularly on the Family Islands, was discontinued and employees were disciplined for improper acceptance of funds. Similarly, only one credit card has historically been used for Family Island purposes. Policies were put in place with respect to that card.”

The report from the Auditor General’s Office found no audited financial statements for BTVI have been provided since at least 2016 - a situation not uncommon for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and all government agencies, which routinely fail to meet financial reporting deadlines set out in their respective governing Acts.

“The financial statements of BTVI for the year ended 2016 were presented in draft form,” the report said. “In addition, statements for the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 are unaudited. It is recommended that BTVI management engage the services of an accounting firm to have the financial statements audited, brought up to date and presented to Parliament.”

As for the staff overpayment, the Auditor General’s Office called on BTVI to explain discrepancies that revealed a collective $95,596 more was paid out to staff over that period than was shown on the payroll spreadsheet.

While BTVI’s bank statements disclosed that $1.271m was paid in total employee salaries for seven months during that timespan, namely October, November and December 2019 and January, March, June and July 2020, its payroll spreadsheet said only a collective $1.176m was due.

“We examined payroll totals for the period of October 15, 2019, through July 30, 2020,” the Auditor General’s Office found. “We observed a difference of $95,597. It is recommended that the Institute provide an explanation for the difference of $95,597.”

Dr Robertson gave such an explanation in his letter. “New training contracts were awarded to BTVI through competitive bid processes. These awards were based on the quality of programmes and the credentials of faculty members,” he added.

“For example, some of the new external programmes initiated as authorised by the Board include a prison programme training for incarcerated individuals; a dual enrollment ICT (information and communications technology) programme; a soft skills programme; developing and delivering online courses and others,” he wrote.

“In many cases, BTVI instructors were assigned to teach these contract courses in addition to their regular contracted teaching load. As a result, overload payments were made to individuals with the requisite experience as well as the necessary professional and technical certifications. This is a common practice in academia. It was specified in the contracts of service for the programmes, and it is essentially overtime required by law.”

Pointing to the improved financial management and reporting legacy he has left, Dr Robertson said: “The Institute has moved to a far more sustainable financial position in recent years. It is important to note that there have been many financial practice improvements that were identified and completed during the last few years. In fact, the anticipated 2021-2022 year-end projection included a record budget surplus for the first time in the history of BTVI.

“These funds will assist in the reconstruction of the hurricane-damaged Freeport and Abaco campus locations as well as implementing a system to address historical structural compensation issues in the organisation. The improvements of the past two years will also put the organisation in a position to conduct an annual audit. I would like to recognise and thank the entire team at BTVI, notably the accounting and academic teams, for their outstanding efforts.”