‘Unnecessary damage’: Food Task Force head rebuts PM

As of Thursday, March 10, 2022

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The head of the former COVID-19 feeding programme yesterday voiced fears that participants will be “unnecessarily damaged” by the Prime Minister’s continuing attacks on its work.

Susan Larson, who ran the National Food Distribution Task Force created by the former Minnis administration, told Tribune Business that Philip Davis QC was creating the “wrong perception” when he asserted in the House of Assembly that one non-governmental organisation (NGO) member had “close to $2m sitting in their bank accounts” when the initiative ended.

She explained that the monies the Prime Minister was referencing were “miscoded, not misappropriated” and the relevant NGO was not even aware the funds were in its account. Mrs Larson said that once the “accounting error” was discovered, steps were immediately taken to return the funds to the Public Treasury.

And she pledged to publicly “defend the honour” of all the NGOs that participated “because they don’t deserve this”. Mrs Larson spoke out after Mr Davis, in unveiling the mid-year Budget statement in the House of Assembly, said the “ongoing” review of the COVID-19 feeding initiative “has produced some startling results”.

“During a period of great food insecurity, when many Bahamians were struggling to feed themselves and their families, several NGOs failed to utilise the full amount allocated to them,” the Prime Minister asserted.

“Why not? What is the point of holding onto funds when there was such a huge need to feed people? And if the funds were available, why was better quality food not provided to all Bahamians?” After voicing complaints about food quality, Mr Davis then referred to the $2m.

“These NGOs were holding on to substantial amounts of cash. In one case, one had close to $2m sitting in their bank accounts. Why?” he asked. “These amounts have since been returned as we have demanded, but this fact, coupled with the extremely poor record-keeping which characterised all elements of this programme, leaves one to question what exactly was the true purpose of this programme. It clearly was not just to address food insecurity.

“Some NGOs have, in fact, failed to provide any real information. In Grand Bahama, the programme was run out of the political office of the then-minister for Grand Bahama, and no real co-operation has been forthcoming. The Bahamian people deserve answers and steps have, and will be, taken to ensure that those responsible will be held accountable.”

In response, Mrs Larson effectively told this newspaper that the Davis administration is creating controversy where none exists. “I think that you will find each of the NGOs that participated in the Task Force stands by their record and their service to the Bahamian people.

“The funds that the Prime Minister is referring to were miscoded, and not misappropriated, so they were not holding on to these funds as if they knew they had them and refused to spend them. This was an accounting error which, when discovered, the funds were put into escrow and the NGO awaited instructions on returning them to the Public Treasury.

“If you know how account numbers are applied to monies going in and going out, it was miscoded and not tallied in accounts attached to the Task Force. It was not spent, it was not tallied. As soon as the error was realised it was held in escrow and immediate steps were taken to return it to the Public Treasury.”

The Minnis administration’s COVID-19 feeding initiative has come under attack and scrutiny ever since its successor was voted into office on September 16 last year. “I think the choice of words is unfortunate,” Mrs Larson said of the Prime Minister’s comments.

“All of us on the Task Force are very, very proud of what we accomplished under extraordinary circumstances and we’ll just stand by that. We were in a pandemic, lockdowns, and the bottom fell out of the Bahamian economy virtually overnight, and we have fed tens of thousands of people for the last two years.

“I’m very concerned that the good reputation of the NGOs, who have served the country in a stellar fashion for years, is going to be unnecessarily damaged. This was an accounting error, there was nothing under hand. This was a simple human mistake,” she continued.

“It’s very unfortunate this has happened, and I’ll go out to the general public to defend the honour of the NGOs because they don’t deserve this... The wrong perception is being created by the choice of words being used here.”

moncurcool 2 years, 1 month ago

It is utterly sad and pathetic that a prime minister would stoop that low with innuendos that he know are not factual, just to appease his bottom feeder supporters.

Sadly though this is what people who are not leaders do. They try to make something out of nothing to take the focus off the fact that they are doing nothing and going nowhere.

ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago

There's something and they know it

The_Oracle 2 years, 1 month ago

Anyone who gets involved with the Political, either party, should know the potential to become political cannon fodder or get thrown under the buss. No matter how good the intent or job. Political expediency and purpose never correlates to competence or purpose.

mandela 2 years, 1 month ago

At least they are not dragging people to court before investigating, Mrs. Susan Larson, what does she know about feeding the helpless. Bishop Walter Henchell has been distributing and helping the helpless for over three decades but under the worthless FNM was ignored and shunned and so was countless hardworking and honest over the hill pastors and NGOs. Let's get to the bottom of the food sham program.

Sickened 2 years, 1 month ago

Sham food program? I guess you never saw the lines of cars waiting for (and getting) food. You are very fortunate not to have needed this program.

ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago

Fraud is commonplace in charities. Charities have been linked to money laundering and terrorism because they're such great mechanisms to hide bad actors and their motives. There was a HUGE sex scandal in Haiti in their relief efforts. Bad actors know if you smile and had out food alot of people will miss what you're really doing. That's why it's of utmost importance that nobody excuses these lax systems with why y'all complaining we was doing good work and plenty people benefitted. Its unaceptable

ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago

"miscoded, not misappropriated” and the relevant NGO was not even aware the funds were in its account"

Seriously? Well this seems to prove Mr Davis' point. Where was the oversight? 2milion dollars disappears and nobody wonders were it was until Brave Davis shows up 2 years later

The NGO should have had reports of X number of persons served totalling a dollar amount, add in their maintenance fee and then the oversight body should have asked, where's the excess 2 million we gave you last month? 2million??? Oh look there's 2 million right on my account! Who knew?

We need to stop allowing these, we're good, it was a just a mistake excuses and start holding everybody accountable or we'll never get rid of corruption. The bad guys will say, well you let the good guys do it, why you picking on me?

birdiestrachan 2 years, 1 month ago

Miscoded not misappropriated? Interesting war of words.

birdiestrachan 2 years, 1 month ago

The other woman said she acquired a sixteen thousand dollar generator. ACQUIRED from where??

Sickened 2 years, 1 month ago

probably bought it from some Brave individual when 'they' brought in all those generators years ago into Nassau, through the out islands disaster relief program, so he didn't have to pay duty.

JohnBrown1834 2 years, 1 month ago

There is a reason why Susan Larson was chosen for this program. It is because of her and her family's ability to raise money on a local and international level. All of the local charity leaders are good at distributing after it is raised and that is what was done. The same people who criticize her are the ones who benefited the most. It is very sad that we only focus on the negative and ignore the positive. Thousand of persons from all walks of life donated their time, talents, and treasures to the feeding program. There were many good things that came out of it. A database was prepared to identify all of those in need to prevent duplication of efforts. The international organizations gave The Bahamas top grades for taking care of the people compared to others around the world. The bottom line is that no one went hungry and no money was stolen. However, Bahamians love to bite the hand that feeds them. Let's see if anyone going to come forward and help next time if we keep attacking those that helped before.

ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago

Which Intl organization gave the Bahamas top grades "compared to everywhere else around the world"?. I thought I heard the opposite, that we were pretty much at the bottom of the pile in terms of our management.

Unfortunately we're going to move nowhere if people keep excusing mediocrity as excellent work.This was mediocre and the very definition of no accountability. If the requirement was for monthly reporting, and funds dispersed on the basis of estimates, with a requirement that excess funds be returned...shouldn't someone have been checking to see the number of persons serviced? how did we get to 2022 with noone realizing there was a 2 million overage?

The next hurricane will come and we will be talking about the exact same thing because "good work" apparently doesn't need to exhibit transparency or accountability

Dawes 2 years, 1 month ago

I strongly recommend all the NGO's to just stop and leave it up to the Govt social services to deal with. If the Government has information on illegal items then take action. If all they do is talk but no action then chances are nothing illegal happened. But what's the point in volunteering and helping (and donating as a large amount of the money in the food task force was donated) if you just get these sort of messages put out. Leave it to Government going forward as they are always able to do the right thing without wasting money.

"........and the relevant NGO was not even aware the funds {$2 million} were in its account."

Susan Larson would be wise to say no more.

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