The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE president of the Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas is calling for the removal of The College of The Bahamas’ College Council Chairman Alfred Sears, arguing that COB’s poor financial processes proves that “stronger” leadership is needed as the institution transitions to a university.

However, Mr Sears rebuffed the calls from UTEB’s President Mark Humes yesterday, saying COB is “serious” about implementing important measures to improve its internal controls.

He also said that Mr Humes, as a member of COB’s College Council, shares responsibility for the body’s actions.

This comes after The Tribune revealed that COB has been in contravention of the College of the Bahamas Act for a number of years, failing to conduct yearly audits as required by the law.

It also comes after this newspaper reported the contents of a management letter from the firm Baker Tilly Gomez (BTG) which paints a bleak picture of the institution’s internal control processes following an audit of its financial statements for the year ending June 30, 2011.

That draft audit, completed in January of this year, is the college’s most recent audit.

During a press conference yesterday, Mr Humes said: “We are asking for the removal of Mr Alfred Sears – a former attorney general of The Bahamas - as chairman of the College Council because of their negligence in carrying out their duties and responsibilities as mandated by the College of The Bahamas Act, placing the college in this embarrassing situation and having the college in violation of the laws.”

He also criticised Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald, who the College of the Bahamas Act says must each year table in Parliament timely audit reports on the college’s finances.

“When asked about why audited accounts have not been tabled in the House under his watch, the minister of education said that he did not know,” Mr Humes said. “My Lord, if he does not know why all these failings are taking place, and he has ultimate responsibility under the law, then he should not be the minister of education and Alfred Sears should not be the chairman of the council. In light of all of these failings, we hope that the prime minister and minister of finance will deal with the minister of education for his non-compliance with the law.”

Mr Humes called for a forensic audit of COB before it officially transitions to a university, noting that concerns over the school’s finances have existed for years.

In response to Mr Humes, Mr Sears said: “Section 8 of the COB Act states that there shall be a council of the college under whose control will be the general direction and control of the college. At all material times, Mr Mark Humes has been a member of the council and as a member of the council, whether he accepts it or not, he is legally responsible for the conduct of the council with respect to audited financial statements and every other activity within COB. It is curious that as a member of the council, he would blame the minister or blame the chairman when he himself sits as a member of the council and exercises the power as a member of council.

“It is unfortunate and quite embarrassing that he would attribute responsibility to one member of council, but not himself. The matters in the management letter presented by the external auditor required the determined and serious remedial measures by the institution. Those measures have been and are being undertaken on the direction of the council and the president will speak to all of those remedial measures as I have requested of him. I call upon Mr Humes and all of the stakeholders to, in a mature and responsible fashion, solve the problems that we have. This is no time for blame. This is the time for us to use our collective wisdom to solve the problem.”

Nonetheless, Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) President John Pinder also expressed concern about COB’s finances.

He suggested during yesterday’s press conference that there is a double standard in the way unions and public organisations are treated when it comes to compliance with laws and agreements.

And since auditors of Baker Tilly Gomez noted in their report that the use of restricted funds at COB couldn’t be traced, Mr Pinder questioned whether donors to COB have reason to believe their donations are being used in accordance with their wishes.

“Let me just say that I am very baffled by the fact that there is an Industrial Act that speaks to the fact that all trade unions must have annual audit statements presented to the director of labour who is the registrar of trade unions in the Bahamas by June 30 each year,” Mr Pinder said. “And failing that you risk being stricken off the list as a trade union. How is it that government agencies are allowed to not have audits done for four, five years? I think there is something very wrong with that.”

COB’s failure to keep up to date with its audits has left the institution unable to begin drawing down on a multi-million dollar loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) that is intended to assist the institution as it completes its transition to university this year.

Among the litany of faults found in BTG’s audit were practices that created opportunities for theft and an inability to trace how restricted funds were used at COB.