“Griffin: Action being taken to clean up fraud in social services dept.” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article: “Following the release of an auditor general’s report that revealed that some staff members at the Department of Social Services participated in a fraudulent food coupon scheme, Minister of Social Services said yesterday that disciplinary action has been taken in this matter.

‘Disciplinary actions have already been taken and I am certain there may be further actions,’ Griffin said.  Again I don’t want to pre-empt what is happening.  So I think that is all I should say at this time.”

While I find it commendable  that the Minister is informing the public that pursuant to the Auditor General’s report disciplinary actions are being taken against staff members that took part in this despicable action I have two points that I would like to raise.

It is interesting to see the way in which this government now takes the recommendations of the auditor general, Terrance Bastian and launches a full investigation into this matter with the promise of ‘heads will roll’; isn’t this the very same Auditor general that found ‘irregularities’ in the accounts of the Urban Renewal program but was considered so inept and incompetent that his report could not be trusted and a ‘private’ audit had to be carried out?

And, was there not a promise of ‘heads will roll’ after it was revealed that the dorm at BAMSI did not have the required Contractors All Risk Insurance at the time that it was set on fire, yet we still await accountability in that matter.

Indeed, it is refreshing to see ‘someone’ being held accountable for the misuse of public funds but it seems that it only happens when a government official is not to close to the fire.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

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