Government Investigating ‘Theft’ Of Documents
An investigation into the alleged theft of a “confidential report that was stolen from government offices” and leaked to ZBM is underway said Cabinet Secretary Donald Scott this morning [Apr.12].
Citing internal documents, ZBM reported on financial irregularities and within the Department of Communications and Information last night.
“ZBM news is in possession of a confidential report that was stolen from government offices and leaked to Mr. Gary Moreno at ZBM news. Internal enquiries regarding the theft of the report and leaking it to ZBM news are underway,” said Mr Scott.
“The report is part of ongoing scheduled work by the Department of Internal Audit. The purpose is to identify any weaknesses in internal controls in Government entities and to make recommendations for improvements.
“The reports are taken seriously by Government and acted upon. The theft of the confidential report by Internal Audit is a serious matter and public officers who are found to have been involved will be subject to disciplinary procedures in accordance with the Public Service Commission Regulations,” concluded Mr Scott.
AND THE PLOT THICKENS!
Oh, yeah.
hahahahaah more interested in the ‘stolen’ report than the details there-in…….hahahahaahahah can’t believe they get paid so much money to make ar$es of themselves on the regular
You mean the PLoP thickens lol
Dont agree at all with theft, but if there are financial irregularities, we deserve to know but through the correct legal processes, this is why we so desperately need PATI
I agree with you but Govt has proven their reluctance to get PATI passed and implemented. The information needs to come out.
I have this indelible impression that we don’t know a quarter of what we should.
Maybe it’s only “theft” if you are one of the guilty parties and the person leaking it is actually a Patriot who needs protection from the non existent Whistleblowers act?
They’ll probably arrest the Auditor General again.
You and I would never know diddly if concerned people didn’t leak,steal and inform on those who would take away all you ever worked for. Really, which is worse? Leak some report which should be public knowledge in the first place or do the dirty deeds we are witnessing on a weekly basis?
Let’s face it, there’s been some gross mismanagement (to be polite) that has all but shut down our hope and future. They are damn lucky this aint Springtime in the Arab world, there’d be some score settling coming on right about now.
hmmmm…let’s see. Is the government going to investigate the theft of the document or more IMPORTANTLY, the CONTENTS of the document?
I would rather someone besides government investigates of these things. Besides a crime has been committed & now its up to BPS to investigate the theft & also find the motive behind by investigating the contents. There’s a reason why these documents were stolen & why they were leaked to the media. All I know is someone must be soiling their undies at this very moment.
I thought our government was ‘resetting the dial’, ‘recalibrating’, ‘operating in the sunshine of public scrutiny’, ‘not business as usual.’
How reassuring to see them spending time and money tracking down the public servant who dares expose government shenanigans rather than putting that effort into tracking down and prosecuting those responsible for the ‘financial irregularities’ in the first place.
Oh well, in the Bermuda context of things it was probably unethical but not illegal anyway.
Once again the concern is how the report got into the hands of a reporter and not about the contents of said report. I do not condone theft of any kind, but the allegations in this report are very serious. Sincerely hope it wil not be another case of immoral but not illegal.
I don’t agree….The contents of the report ARE IMPORTANT and ARE of CONCERN especially if the financial irregularities contribute to the debt that the island is in that I am being asked to forego a year of my pension and contribute 8% to assist in making it right…I don’t care how they got it….I would like to see it…If the document is so confidential they should have had it secure and not allow any “joe blow” access to it…..what happens in the dark eventually comes to light….it is what it is…….
er…actually Serious was being facetious. “Once again [the government's] concern…”
er…ok thanks “what Next”……thanks for the clarfication…….
We are in agreement. Maybe my comments came across as if I think the contents should be investigated, I DO!! and the guilty parties should be punished for the not accounting for all funds been spent.
should be ” the contents should not be…..”
Investigate every infraction and punish all concerned.
We have no PATI. So, all’s fair game in my book.
This is clearly the Governors fault – and UBP. I also think Dr. Brown needs to hold another press conference to deny any part in this. Just to make sure of course. While he’s at it he can tell everyone that the west end dock is not his fault either. He can also remind us that his incredibly successful African American wife is very successful and African American too! Also very successful in case I forgot to say. She has a lot of money apparently – and did I say successful – sorry I forgot. She was an Attorney you know.
I missed the news last night. can someone fill me in on the contents of the doc? or do we only know that it contains irregularities?
You’ve seen this movie before. People purchased items that they had no authority to purchase. Some of the purchased items cannot be accounted for now. Some contracts did not go out to tender etc etc.
You know, business as usual.
A senior civil servant suddenly paid for a television which went missing.
Pandora’s box is being pried open-at last!
oooh so basically docs showing what everyone knows anyway?
no wonder they dont want them leaked..
I must say though, i do find EBs speech, This doc leak, and Ms THangs dismissal from pro-plp HOTT as a very interesting and intriguing few days of news.
…but what does it all meeaaan Basil
In simple language , what Gary reported on the news was something to the effect that the ‘stolen document’ revealed that a sort of internal investigation had taken place and the records of close to a hundred transactions involving money , and in many cases large sums of it , had vanished.
It’s not the fact that the document was leaked to the news that concerns our illustrious government , it’s that it gives proof that all the ‘haters’ are right about the supposed financial issues that’s been going on .
As well… apparently some so-called ‘consultants’ had been paid for work not accounted for, or not done at all. Must be those rascals in the Friends & Family Plan.
Unless the report that ZBM has is the original, and not a photocopy, it’s doubtful that it’s been ‘stolen’ in the legal sense.
They are concerned about this document and they don’t want it leaked. Sure thing that there is negative information that the government don’t want the people to know.
They want to deceive us!
The investigation should be into WHO used our taxpayer money to buy things that are unaccounted for and somehow disappeared. Which of you civil servants are going to have to take the fall? Because I HOPE you do understand that if anything illegal was done you can bet your boots that it has been set up so that the ministers themselves will not be in trouble and that it will indeed fall back unto the civil servants that had to do certain things for certain people. There is ALWAYS a fall guy. If you are a civil servant and were asked to do anything shady you better go ahead and lawyer up.
If a civil servant is involved it wont matter how good their lawyer is because the magistrates gets the final decision & I’m sure all the magistrates know the saying don’t bite the hand that feeds them. The civil servant is up doo doo creek without a paddle.
The best thing for the civil servant to do is arrange a meeting with the governor & spill all they know. I’m sure the governor & England will be interested to know what type of people run their colonies government plus it will give the governor a fully loaded clip when it comes to the scrutiny he’s being put under. The governor has let it be till now because of lack of proof but this might be the straw he needed to break the camels back.
Damn Canadians again.
what is in the report who cares where it came from stop trying to reflect from the real problem
Lets face it. IF civil servants see their political masters commiting dishonest acts with impunity, they are likely to engage in similar behaviour.
Right on Gary Mareno! It’s about time we had some hard-hitting journalists spilling the tea and making people uncomfortable!
Congratulations Gary Moreno.
Were is PATI? Where is whistleblower legislation.
Maybe the TV will be found in Washington?
Its all a smoke screen folks.
Let me be just a little stupid here, is this anything new or is it the same crap from another administration but just another day, or could it be that the irregularities have not all been ironed out and we are just been put in a tail spin because Gary Marino got a hold of the documents before the final findings can be produced,things have a way of clearing themselves when given the chance or just dissapearing all together like anothe person’s administration mishaps.
When are we going to get serious and start demanding for a royal commision investigations on several irregularities that higher paid people then myself have alleged, when your finish just drop me a few million down here so I can laugh with you.
Thank goodness for this because we the Public would have never known as it would have been swept right under the carpet
who was the Director of DCI during this time???
@ change all and rumandcoke,
As you are probably aware, the Government reassigns Ministers when they really should be fired.
The same applies to civil servants when they should be fired!
It is unusual to send them off the island though.
Change all…
Have it been ascertained yet who was director at the time?
Before the present Director was named the past director was
assigned to the Bermuda office in Washington at substantial cost to
the taxpayer. Question is why? Question is what exactly has
the Washington office been doing for the country and the
taxpayers’ money?
The public has a right to know.
When someone with conscience has to leak then there is a lack of confidence in the internal audit process.
On the other side of the coin, I just hope we don’t have a suspicious fire as they did with Grand Turk Courthouse fire action in 2007
All you people taking shots at our Government just be aware of WHITE SUPREMACY. We have been and still our economical slaves. Free your mind and stop the actions for OBA // UBP DEVILS // Colonial Masters!
Oh my, look a brainwashed idiot. Plenty of very succesful black folks accross the board in Bermuda. Stop holding us back with this nonsense.
Just in case you missed the memo, we’re in 2012, its called financial supremecy now and its no longer restricted to color, dummy.
Ho-hum…. This is just more PLP ‘boiler plate rhetoric’ from the typical sycophants.
Economical? Don’t you mean Economic slaves? If so we are all slaves to our credit cards, slaves to our Blackberrys slaves to our ignorance. Now this is where your comment comes in.
There are no ‘light coloured’ people left bro. They in hiding, being real quietlike ya know?
Supremacy?? Who’s been spending $1,300,000,000 over the last 13 years? Who run tings mon?
Make me laugh ras! You tings now! Ya feel me?
See they can’t keep there mitts out of the kitty
the Premier said this was the era of transparency
she should be pleased that a report was leaked so he dirnt havr to take a decisionmto fire the thief as we knoe the Premier doesnt like decisions, remember the $1.2 billion i didnt decide i was just a cog in the wheel
if some one stole money or fudged their expenses be happy the cat is now out the bag as govt internal audits etc take too long to find anything let alone get rid of people look at the situation now in immigration that has dragged on for weeks with 2 officers givennchance upon chance
Civil Servants are bound by General Orders not to discuss internal matters publicly. If the people really knew even half of what’s gone down they would be more than shocked. Whatever the “internal audit” uncovers will remain internal so you can rest assured that no-one will ever know how bad things really have been. I’m just glad that steps were taken to improve financial controls within Government so that this type of thing cannot happen again…a little like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted but hey, at least action has been taken.
What action…??
The same old Sh**