The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DNA Leader Branville McCartney yesterday blasted Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna Martin for seeking to blame a previous FNM administration for the chronic financial problems plaguing the Road Traffic Department.

Mr McCartney, in a statement, said blaming the former Ingraham administration for the Road Traffic Department’s (RTD) woes is a “sad excuse” on Mrs Hanna Martin’s part since she has had ministerial oversight of the department “for nine years out of the last 14 years” and “more particularly for the last four years”.

Mr McCartney also questioned if the police probe into the department’s operations would yield any fruitful results, pointing to several seemingly unsolved scandals involving missing or misappropriated government funds, with at least one of those scandals involving a department directly under Mrs Hanna Martin’s ministerial purview.

Mr McCartney’s statements were in response to Mrs Hanna Martin’s statements in the House of Assembly on Monday in response to a newly released auditor general’s report that revealed that millions of dollars in losses from vehicle license revenue resulting from employees and motorists “circumventing rules and regulations.”

Mrs Hanna Martin has acknowledged that the department has long been plagued with “repeated age-old issues” and that the Christie administration had previously tried to address the issues plaguing the department with plans for modernisation.

Mrs Hanna Martin said by the end of the Christie administration’s previous term a request for proposal process (RFP) had reached the final stage and a firm was selected in principle from eight proposals to implement an automated motor vehicle and driver’s license system.

However, she said that process was rejected and abandoned by the former Ingraham administration, allowing for the deteriorating state of affairs at the department to “not only continue, but indeed accelerate at an exponential rate.”

Mr McCartney said yesterday: “Blaming the former administration is a sad excuse. The PLP is the government and as this minister used to loudly say to the then government when she was in opposition, ‘fix it.’”

And, despite pledges by Road Traffic Controller Ross Smith that officials are prepared to prosecute those involved in the scandal to the fullest extent of the law, Mr McCartney expressed doubt that the government would live up to its word.

In particular, Mr McCartney referred to last year’s move by the government to summon the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) to probe the findings of Auditor General Terrence Bastian’s report on alleged fraud and other irregularities at the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). At the time, Mrs Hanna Martin, the minister responsible for the post office, acknowledged the need for a “radical shift” in oversight “required for what in fact is a critical financial institution” in the country.

However, Mr McCartney said the government has since “been quiet as a church mouse with regards to that police probe.”

“We, the Bahamian people, are the ones paying for all of this misappropriation of funds,” Mr McCartney added. “Our children will also have to pay. We, as Bahamians, are suffering day in and day out, but yet we accept this foolishness. The reality is that if we had good governance with proper checks and balances in our system of governance and on our political leaders we would not be in this mess.”

Mr Bastian’s audit, which covers the period July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2015, was tabled in the House of Assembly on Monday. It focused on vehicle license revenue and payroll processing.

The report said: “In order for the RTD to forecast revenue for motor vehicles, it would be essential for a register of information on the number of registered vehicles to be maintained. Due to RTD being in contravention of its Act in this regard, the determinable amount of revenue that would be due to the government in any given year is unknown.

“If a forecast would be performed based on the total number of licence plates produced and issued, approximately 374,000 plates, to the public as of June 30, 2015, one would estimate that the motor vehicle licence revenue should be at a minimum of $73m (374,000 x $195) instead of the reported average of $26m per annum.

“If the approximate number of 374,000 plates was reduced by 50 per cent there would still be an estimated loss of $10m as compared to the actual recorded revenue noted herein,” Mr Bastian noted.