PRIME MINISTER Patterson has set up a four-man commission to probe the operations of the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) and Operation PRIDE.
We are not sure what the Prime Minister is hoping to achieve by this latest enquiry beyond what has already been provided by the Auditor-General in his 1997 report on Operation PRIDE and the audit commissioned by the former managing director of the NHDC, Mr. Christopher Honeywell, that chronicled the waste of public funds. This audit, which was undertaken by professionals, is reported to have cost some $3 million.
The two measures that we would have expected the Prime Minister to take, which he has not done, would have been to suspend work on all Operation PRIDE Projects and replace the present board of the NHDC.
It was under the watch of the present board that the massive cost overruns as detailed in the internal audit took place, overruns which are indicative of, at the very least, a laxity in the management of public funds.
Mr. Patterson is not minded to stop the work on the Operation PRIDE projects, because as he puts it, the challenge of providing affordable shelters "dictates that there can be no interval in the full and proper implementation of the projects already under way."
We would have thought that prudence, if nothing else, would demand that the work should cease until management and systems are put in place to guarantee that value is provided for the expenditure of millions of dollars of public funds.
The effect of the Prime Minister's move is to supplant the additional audits Minister Blythe has himself ordered. More importantly, it raises serious questions about the efficacy of Commissions of Enquiry in matters of public scandal. The futility of the Montego Bay Street People enquiry comes to mind; as do the current time-consuming West Kingston proceedings.
Buying time for political reasons cannot erase what the extensive audits of Operation PRIDE have already uncovered.
