The Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick issued another report yesterday (7) this time on persons requiring social assistant. It was not good – in fact the report “Government programmes supporting those in need” is a damning statement on how the poor in our society receive even poorer attention from those employed to help them.

He found “there is no rationalization or coordination of these programmes to ensure that responsibilities are appropriately assigned and that there is a coherent approach to addressing current and emerging social needs. Further, in the absence of any measurement of results achieved, there is no effective accountability to the Legislative Assembly for this major portion of government expenditure.”

And what is the government expenditure?

12 such programmes amounting to a whopping $51.5 million in 2013-14! And the LA members don’t know where or who the money goes to.

The audit found there were no objectives established and no measurement for performance and therefore no accountability.

Social assistance was provided with no clear criteria in most cases and where there were criteria it was ignored.

When people were refused assistance in most cases there was no impartial appeals process for them to go apply to. In the only two instances where the person may appeal it applied to the Temporary Poor Relief Assistance and the enrolment of seamen and veterans for medical insurance with CINICO.

In neither case was the person(s) hearing the appeal impartial nor when the person appealing would hear a response.

In the case of Seamen who were entitled to benefits from age 60 the applicants were aged from 60-75 when first applying. And when they did apply they did not receive the amount due because there was not enough money in the fund.

One cannot put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the civil servants who have the job of managing the funds. Some of the programmes do not have the number of staff required to see to the needs .”As a result, there can be long delays for people, who may need urgent help, in gaining access to available services,” the report states.

This is a shocking testament on our welfare system in a country that boasts there is no need for people to starve.

I belong to a church and I can vouch that social services send poor people here to our pantry to receive food. And the same goes for other churches and private social community programmes. There should be no need for this.

When there is no accountability, no reporting back to the LA members, no appropriate management control framework in place, we MUST do better and it MUST be done now.

When a person in need sees a similar person receiving government handouts he has been refused it causes unrest and can lead to the person resorting to criminal means so he/she can survive. I have sadly heard ex-prisoners wail, “At least in prison I can get a meal”.

The government should go down on their knees and thank the Auditor General’s office for executing this audit. The report lists many REMEDIES. I hope they are all implemented immediately.

Poor response to the poor within a budget of over $50M in a small country like ours must not be tolerated. Accountability MUST be put in place.