Report: There are signals that gov’t knew Skelton Cline was inadequate
The findings of an audit conducted on Claude Skelton Cline’s last three public contracts indicate that the government might have been aware that Skelton Cline was badly underperforming, but they continued to keep him employed anyway.
In her December 2022 audit report on the examination of public contracts issued to Skelton Cline from March 2019 to September 2021, Auditor General Sonia Webster concluded that the government did not receive any value for money on the contracts which paid Skelton Cline monthly salaries of $16,000, $12,000, and $9,000, respectively.
“The decreasing contractual remuneration in each successive engagement suggests that the [Andrew Fahie-led] administration was aware that value was not being achieved from this arrangement,” Webster said in her report.
“Review of the documents, information and contracts suggests that the primary purpose of this consultancy was not to add value to the government but rather to provide employment for the consultant,” she added.
According to the report which was only made public yesterday, Skelton was pressing the government for more money even as he failed to meet his deliverables.
The report found that “attempts by the consultant to re-negotiate this second contract into a three-year term and higher monthly renumeration than the $12,000 offered were not successful.”
This second contract which ran for one year required Skelton Cline to identify and develop at least three initiatives that would generate a minimum of five million dollars in revenue to the government. He received that contract through a Cabinet tender waiver even though, according to the report, there was no evidence that Skelton was qualified to do such a job.
“The decreasing contractual remuneration in each successive engagement suggests that the [Andrew Fahie-led] administration was aware that value was not being achieved from this arrangement,” Webster said in her report.
“Review of the documents, information and contracts suggests that the primary purpose of this consultancy was not to add value to the government but rather to provide employment for the consultant,” she added.
Skelton Cline was seeking even more money
According to the report which was only made public yesterday, Skelton was pressing the government for more money even as he failed to meet his deliverables.
The report found that “attempts by the consultant to re-negotiate this second contract into a three-year term and higher monthly renumeration than the $12,000 offered were not successful.”
This second contract which ran for one year required Skelton Cline to identify and develop at least three initiatives that would generate a minimum of five million dollars in revenue to the government. He received that contract through a Cabinet tender waiver even though, according to the report, there was no evidence that Skelton was qualified to do such a job.
