The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A DAY after the head of the now disbanded National Food Distribution Task Force shared with the media a comprehensive database of its work to provide pandemic relief, press secretary Clint Watson insisted the government still has no record of how the task force’s money was spent.

He said he finds it “quite interesting” that data relating to the COVID-19 feeding programme can be shared with the press and not the sitting government.

Mr Watson spoke out after Mrs Susan Larson, who headed the task force, disclosed detailed records on the committee’s spending habits since the initiative’s start, inclusive of food purchases, trucking, shipping, stipends and other overhead costs with The Tribune.

 Detailed records of the 54,107 households being assisted at the pandemic’s height and the criteria the taskforce used to identify vulnerable families were also included in its report, dated January 19,2019.

 According to Mrs Larson, the complete database has been shared with both the Ministry of Finance and Department of Social Services.

 However, Mr Watson denied this yesterday. He also claimed that workers at the various government agencies also had no information on the programme when approached on the issue.

 He said: “It’s quite interesting that the former head of the task force is comfortable sharing whatever information she has with The Tribune, The Guardian but the government can’t get access to it.

 “Government officials have said ‘we want to see the records.’ We need to be able to give an account for the records. We haven’t seen those. If you’ve seen records that show what was spent and who it was spent to, by all means please share with the government. The financial secretary has gone on record, saying that they cannot get the answers that they need.”

 The report’s release comes amid allegations by government officials about the national food programme, with an audit said to be still underway into the task force’s operations.

 Earlier this week, Social Services Minister Obie Wilchcombe claimed The Bahamas has not been able to provide information to the World Bank on how its $100m loan was used to provide pandemic relief to hurting Bahamians among other things.

 Yesterday, Mr Watson said the former ministers of finance and social services are to blame for the situation, arguing it was their responsibility to ensure that records were accurate and kept properly.

 “When an administration comes in,” Mr Watson said, “they shouldn’t have to be looking left, right and centre trying to find information if accounting was done accurately and properly. This was raised because there needs to be a satisfaction of how the people’s money was spent and there are no records to show how their monies were spent. That’s how this really came up so I don’t want us to lose track because this is not about an NGO.

 “This is about the fact that government spent $53m of the people’s money and the new administration that it’s in office cannot account for where that money went so the audit report was commissioned on the food programme.”

  He continued: “The assumption was that the public officials and social services would have the information on the programme because it was being operated under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Services. They did not have the information and directed the auditor to the head of the food distribution task force, who informed the auditor that she didn’t have the information which was requested by the auditor. This is her word and (she said she) would reach out to the NGOs ​participating. To date, the requested information has not been provided. Bits and pieces are being shared with the press but the government has no information.

“A report is not what we’re asking for. (What) we’re asking for is information as to where the money went, where did you buy the goods? How much money did you spend? That was not sent to the World Bank.”

 According to Mrs Larson, the COVID-19 feeding programme, which began in 2020, distributed 474,420 food vouchers and 972,191 food parcels during its 70 weeks for a total of 1.447m units.

Mrs Larson said an initial 54,107 households were being assisted at the pandemic’s height but was later reduced to 18,000 towards the end of 2021.

“Every NGO had weekly dashboards for the 70-week programme,” Mrs Larson explained. “This dashboard template was shared with the financial secretary at the time (Marlon Johnson). He signed off on this, approved this as a method of record-keeping. The expenditure of each NGO was itemised.”