Minister: Every dollar allocated for games spent appropriately

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

YOUTH, Sports and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg said the government did not overspend on last year’s CARIFTA and Jubilee Games, which cost more than $7m than was allocated, according to audit reports from the Office of the Auditor General.

“Every dollar that was allocated or budgeted for those games was received and spent appropriately,” he said.

He complained that the reports into the events — which highlighted weak internal controls, unauthorised wage increases and circumvented hiring procedures — were released without input from his ministry.

He said he expected the Office of the Auditor General to meet with his team before finalising the report. He expressed bafflement and disappointment in some of the auditor general’s findings.

“If we responded, we would have been able to answer most of these questions favourably,” he said.

Free National Movement leader Michael Pintard countered that all auditor general reports are sent to agency heads for documented feedback before they are laid in Parliament.

 “Not only has the Ministry of Youth & Sports had the audit report for a while, but they had ample time to investigate the matter themselves and seek to hold the relevant parties accountable for any maladministration or malfeasance identified,” he said in a statement. 

Mr Bowleg suggested that overspending claims show a misunderstanding of how the Ministry of Finance operates, saying it is not uncommon for annual budget line items not to reflect the full cost of an event.

“When you hosting an event of this magnitude, if it cost $10m, I shouldn’t expect finance to give me $10m up front,” he said. “Finance will tell you, okay, when is your event? Let’s say your event is 2026. I will have to start preparing finance for that event for the next budget cycle, which is 24-25. Finance will say, okay, you need $10m, here’s what I gon’ do. In the next two months, I give you $2m here, I’ll give you $3m here, and if you see you still need the rest of this money, then we gon’ throw that at you during the year of the games.”

Nonetheless, the first time the government allocated money for last year’s CARIFTA Games was the 2022-2023 budget. 

Mr Bowleg could not speak to many elements of the auditor general’s report, such as the finding that funds were used for reasons unrelated to the games. He said his team must sit with the auditor general to gain further insight.

“I’m not saying he wasn’t right or he wasn’t wrong, but unless we have a conversation for you to pinpoint those things to me, it puts me as the minister responsible and my executive team at a disadvantage because it was tabled and at least me personally didn’t have a chance to review the report to be able to say why you say this or why you say that,” he said.

The audit of the Bahamas Jubilee Games found unauthorised vehicle purchases, salary increases, and misuse of petty cash.

The audit of the CARIFTA Games found that the Local Organisation Committee (LOC) hosted a gospel concert that was unrelated to the games and made only $4000 after spending about $140k.

The audit also concluded that Thomas A Robinson Stadium’s staff increased, with 100 temporary staff assigned tasks unrelated to the games.

“I saw that in the report, and I wondered how could that be agreed, proven that they were hired and were doing work not related to the game,” Mr Bowleg said.

“I know there were a bunch of young men around the stadium at some point helping to assist the National Sports Authority because NSA didn’t have the manpower to break down and do some of the work around the stadium. If that is the case, then it is nonsense to say they were not doing things related to the games.”

Progressive Liberal Party chairman Fred Mitchell thrashed the press for reporting the audits’ findings on Wednesday without Minister Bowleg’s response.

He similarly questioned whether the auditor general sought the ministry’s response, saying the financial watchdog “would know that the principle in Bahamian administrative law is that where an authority proposes to make an adverse finding against an entity or person, the proposed finding ought to be put to the entity or person for that person or entity to respond.”

He said the public should know that audits are “only a snapshot of what the auditor found on the day or days they showed up for the audit.”

“No doubt the auditor general is familiar with governmental budgetary practices,” he said. “A notional figure is often put in a budget to create a line item in anticipation of multi year expenditure. That therefore does not mean that when additional sums are allocated that there was an overspend. Such an allegation or conclusion would be misleading.”

Mr Pintard said the Public Accounts Committee will probe some matters revealed in the auditor general’s report.