Opposition legislator Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull has called for the public to have access to the Auditor General’s (AG) report on the COVID-19 Assistance Grants, stating that it was not written according to international standards.
However, a local business that was called out in a previous AG report has criticized Turnbull’s views on the recent report, stating that he is criticizing the new report because it is not in his favor.
EZ Shipping, the company hired by the Andrew
Fahie government to secure the territory with radar barges during the
COVID-19 pandemic, released a statement criticizing Turnbull’s views.
The company said that Turnbull had supported the Auditor General’s report on the company, which it claimed damaged its reputation and image.
The Auditor General’s report on the Examination of the House of Assembly’s
COVID-19 Assistance Grants was debated in the House of Assembly last week.
Members of the House of Assembly, including Turnbull, criticized the report, which was based on processes that failed to meet international industry standards.
In March this year, Turnbull had championed the flawed Auditor General’s Static Marine Platform Report and criticized other members of the Assembly who had challenged aspects of the report.
However, after becoming the subject of the Assistance Grants report, Turnbull has turned on the Auditor General and dismissed her efforts, stating that the report was defective, failed to meet international standards, and was inadequate.
EZ Shipping has commissioned an independent forensic accountant to review the Auditor General’s Static Marine Platform Report, which found that the Auditor General’s work was defective and failed to meet international standards.
A spokesman for EZ Shipping said that the company had been the subject of rumors, innuendo, and reputational damage from a flawed report process where it was not asked to provide evidence before its publication.
The spokesman added that the company was confident that an independent, objective, and fair assessment of the facts would show that it had fully complied with its contractual obligations.