The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC Accounts Committee Chairman Hubert Chipman said after hearing testimony from the co-chairs of Urban Renewal 2.0 yesterday, it is clear that the programme is “disjointed.”

He added that he was amazed to find out that while “a lot of money” is channelled through Urban Renewal, Co-chairs Algernon Allen and Cynthia “Mother” Pratt do not have “any responsibility” for the funds.

“What we found this morning is that the Urban Renewal Commission is so disjointed in terms of who is in charge of what, who pays what.

“A lot of things are passed through Urban Renewal, the co-chairs have no responsibility for Grand Bahama, Cat Island or Eleuthera – their authority only goes up to $10,000. What we also found very interesting this morning was the (Urban Renewal) Foundation sits outside Urban Renewal, even though they raise funds in the name of Urban Renewal Foundation.”

Mr Chipman told reporters that Urban Renewal is operating under the direction of Cabinet and the Ministry of Works and Urban Development, but has no legal status of its own.

When asked about Mr Chipman’s concerns, Mr Allen said any money spent by the co-chairs was done wisely.

“We know, from our perspective of the commission, as co-chairs that all monies spent by us in seeking to further the objectives, the aims of Urban Renewal, was spent appropriately,” Mr Allen said. “So whatever else may have been done is outside of our purview, but monies which were directed by the co-chairs, by the commission, was done appropriately.”

And months after he castigated the PAC for wanting to question him over the contents of a scathing audit into Urban Renewal, Mr Allen said the PAC’s work and the controversial report would help the programme.

Earlier this year, he and Mrs Pratt engaged in a standoff with the PAC, accusing the committee of not following parliamentary procedures when it demanded that they respond to concerns raised by a Small Home Repairs report written by Auditor General Terrance Bastian.

The Urban Renewal co-chairs spent hours answering questions before the committee yesterday, discussing their authority and the responsibilities of people who work with the programme.

The PAC is expected to finish interviews by the end of next week, following which they will prepare and release a final report.

While maintaining that their activities within Urban Renewal have always been “above board,” Mr Allen admitted that the committee’s work will help improve the management of the controversial programme.

He said: “Yes, the work of the auditor general, whose work we appreciate, the work of this committee and indeed the work of the (government’s) independent report into the Small Home Repairs programme provides us with lessons in administration and management and we also believe that going forward it will enable us to bring greater focus to the minutiae, the small things that make a difference to ensure the transparency and integrity of the process.

“In case of the awarding of contracts, I believe that the follow through and the supervision of that and the publication of what was contracted and what work was done would be served well by the work of this commission, the work of the auditor general and the recommendations made by the independent contractor’s report.”

Mr Allen described yesterday’s hearing as “cordial,” noting that Mr Chipman, along with other PAC members East Grand Bahama MP Peter Turnquest, Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn and Golden Gates MP Shane Gibson, were present.

Mr Allen said he was told that Elizabeth MP Ryan Pinder, who resigned from Cabinet last year to take up a high paying job in the private sector, has not attended any of the meetings thus far.

Mr Allen added: “This was a vital exercise in our parliamentary democracy. Now that it has been properly and constitutionally founded and grounded it represents the best of our system of accountability.”

Mr Bastian’s audit was leaked to the media in April. That report found, among other issues, that 11 contractors were paid more than $170,000 for small home repairs they had not completed or done. The government later commissioned an independent study which contradicted this report and found that the programme did receive value for money.