The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DISASTER Reconstruction Authority executive chairman Alex Storr estimates that between $250,000 to $1m worth of post Hurricane Dorian supplies belonging to the agency are still missing.

As a result, he said officials are now putting in place measures “to go after” those items.

Mr Storr was asked for an update into the agency’s ongoing investigations to recover DRA resources after officials said last month that it was working with the Royal Bahamas Police in regard to missing commercial assets.

Mr Storr told reporters yesterday: “We are putting measures in place to go after more supplies that we feel are missing that some were a part of that and some may be a part of other things but we are putting measures in place to go after everything the DRA has that is out there that is not in our possession.”

Mr Storr also noted that a good number of missing supplies were items from the government’s dome city and other DRA projects.

Asked for an estimate of how much is missing, the DRA chairman replied: “I estimate that between $250,000 and $1m of supplies and different equipment.”

Last month, officers retrieved kitchen cabinets from Abaco resident and former DRA board member Bishop Silbert Mills’ church as part of their ongoing investigations.

The local religious leader went live on to condemn what he called a “nasty attack” against him after reports circulated online suggesting that some wrongdoing had been done. He also expressed disappointment over how the matter was handled.

However, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander later clarified that the RBPF never searched Bishop Mills’ church and said the pastor was “no subject of no investigation”.

“He invited us – we never searched his church. He took us and showed us directly in the kitchen where he had the items,” the police chief said at the time.

“He was no subject of no investigation and I did not go to Abaco to do no investigation. I went there to visit my (officers) to see how they were doing and the welfare. So, he’s no subject of no investigation. We never searched his church.”

According to Bishop Mills, the items were only being held there for storage.

As for the current location of those items, Mr Storr said they are currently being housed at a DRA house.

“The supplies are kitchen equipment and we’re trying to find the best use to help persons on Abaco with those,” he also said.

Since assuming office last year, the Davis administration has raised several concerns with how the DRA was managed under the former government and even highlighted irregularities with several of its relief projects, including the now disbanded Small Home Repair Programme.

This comes as a forensic audit into the DRA is said to be ongoing.