And keeping it on the unions, you also heard how the 1st Vice President of the Public Service Union was calling for the Financial Secretary, the Governor of the Central Bank and the Auditor General to be sent home. The Unions say that these 3 public officials have not done enough to curb the waste of public finances and to hold the government of the day to accountability, transparency, and good governance.
The FinSec and the Central Bank Governor haven't given any response, but Auditor, General Dorothy Bradley, has. She is asserting that the unions should be showing support to her and her staff.
In a 700-word press release, the Auditor General said, quote, " The Office of the Auditor-General has been consistent in producing credible work and has kept this Nation informed even in the face of adversities when the very Public Service Union and Association of Senior Public Managers have kept quiet and condoning improper conduct within the public service. Not once has either Union come to the Office's defense even though the Auditor General is a member of APSSM, and the staff are members of PSU. They have endured ruthless and baseless attacks and in order to maintain the dignity of the Office the Auditor General has always opted not to respond, but the recent uninformed assertions seek to distract from the incompetence of both unions to ensure the public service is beyond reproach.
This is not the first time that the Public Service Union has attacked the Auditor General
Neither of these Unions seems to understand the fundamental difference between external and internal audit functions. Instead, the unions now chose to mask their frustration with personal agenda. The Office has approximately five hundred entities subject to external auditing and stands on its nonpartisan nonpolitical principle and will never undertake demanded audits to fulfill political agendas. It is most unfortunate that these unions are seeking to work against the only Office that has demonstrated in every report the many faucets of leakages, fraud, and corruption that have now resulted in the financial crisis at hand." End quote.
That's a hard line to take, and today, our colleagues from Krem News had an extended sit-down interview with Bradley, and she discussed the reasons why several of the completed audits from her office have sort of remained buried. Here's that conversation:
