$500,000 govt contract probe

By PAUL G TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

pturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE OFFICE of the Auditor General is questioning the payment of $537,327.50 to a Bahamian company contracted to train workers in the operational and technical aspects of solid waste management, The Tribune can reveal.

According to their report, SABL (Bahamas) Ltd was awarded the contract to provide training of staff on February 7, 2006, in the amount of $589,310, but hasn't supplied sufficient documentation to justify the $537,327.50 paid so far.

This follows The Tribune's revelations yesterday of how unscrupulous contractors embezzled $1.3 million from the Government through its solid waste management programme on the Family Islands.

SABL (Bahamas) Ltd is co-owned by Judson Wilmott and Prince Wallace, who are also beneficial owners of BK Holdings along with Senator Jerome Fitzgerald, Mark Finlayson, and Philip Kemp.

According to the Auditor General's report, their investigators were provided with a schedule of payments between February 15, 2006, and April 4, 2007, "some 14 months" for payments totalling $537,327.50 - leaving an outstanding balance of $51,982.50.

However, the Auditor General's office said it could not verify the legitimacy of these payments as the accounting documents they requested were not provided.

Further, a schedule of training was presented to the audit team, the report said, however, the information/documentation needed was (not) included.

"The accountant with responsibility for the loan informed us that she benefited from the programme by attaining a Bachelor of Science degree with concentration in Professional Management. However, based on the types of training listed, this degree appears to be outside of the scope. The payment documents for this disbursement were not seen, and as a result, we were unable to determine the cost," the report read.

The disbursement of monies to SABL (Bahamas) Ltd were as follows:

February 15, 2006: $58,931

April 13, 2006: $88,396.50

July 25, 2006: $50,000

September 29, 2006: $50,000

December 7, 2006: $70,000

January 19, 2007: $50,000

February 5, 2007: $70,000

March 3, 2007: $50,000

March 30, 2007: $50,000

The Auditor General's report said: "We recommend that adequate documentation including accounting documents, approval for attending training workshops, etc. be provided to show that training was done and who was trained for the money paid to SABL (Bahamas) Ltd. In the absence of this, we recommend that the funds expended be recovered without delay."

In fact, according to sources close to this matter, professors from Iowa State University, Shaw Engineering, and Fox Engineering traveled to the Bahamas to perform this training but were not allegedly paid for their work.

Additional, the report also requested that if the funds expended on the degree for the accounting officer was not properly authorised that the loan funding be reimbursed "without delay".

"During our interview with the project accountant, we were told that she sometimes questioned payment requests but was told by the Project Engineering Unit (PEU) personnel that she was not a technical person and therefore would not understand technical terms," the report read.

In an attempt to verify the names of the shareholders and directors in SABL (Bahamas) Ltd, The Tribune visited the Registrar General Department to conduct a search on the company. However, this newspaper was informed by a clerk at the office that the file for this company had "disappeared" from the shelves. Additional searches revealed that SABL (Bahamas) Ltd or (Snyder & Associates (Bahamas) Ltd were offered a certificate of a change in its name on September 10, 2003, to SABL Consulting Engineers & Planners Ltd.

According to that document filed at the Registrar General's Department, SABL Consulting Engineers & Planners Ltd is owned by two other companies - Core Managers Limited, and Procore Directors Limited, which own one share each in SABL and are listed as "president" and "secretary" respectively in the company.

The Tribune's investigation into this and other related matters will continue tomorrow.

Published On:Wednesday, March 17, 2010