The start of a new year is traditionally a good time to turn over a new leaf. How about some consequences for those who serve in Government and who ignore the rules designed to protect taxpayers from being ripped off? That would apparently be something new.

The news that a serious effort to investigate the management of government finances between 2010 and 2012 is to be held next year is heartening. It may be a step towards some accountability being applied, albeit rather late. Let’s hope so.

It is encouraging to hear that the Commission of Inquiry announced this week by Michael Dunkley, the Premier, immediately received backing from the Opposition, even though it was a Progressive Labour Party administration that will come under scrutiny.

The report on government finances between 2010 and 2012, tabled in the House of Assembly last month by Heather Jacobs Matthews, the Auditor-General, made infuriating reading for anyone whose taxes, fees and customs duties had filled the government coffers during that time.

There was more than a tinge of frustration evident in some of Ms Matthews’s comments, especially when it came to the bypassing of the financial instructions, to which senior people in the Bermuda Government are required to adhere. “It is evident that the policies, procedures and rules pertaining to capital expenditures are being violated to such an extent that it has now become the norm for which there are no consequences,” she wrote.

It is to be hoped that the commission, which will comprise an accountant, a lawyer and two others from the community, will investigate vigorously in order to get tax payers the answers they deserve. Ms Matthews’s reports on 2010-2012, the upgrade of the Port Royal Golf Course and the Heritage Wharf project have pointed to something beyond financial sloppiness and ignorance of the rules. Not that ignorance is any defence.

While Ms Matthews and her predecessor, Larry Dennis, ascertained beyond reasonable doubt that financial controls were frequently not followed, the limits on their investigative powers, as the independent external auditors of government finances, did not allow them to find out much more. The commission will be empowered to build on the auditors’ work and to question those involved as to why they repeatedly threw their own rule book out of the window.

Bermudians will want to see tenacious interrogations aimed at getting clear and justifiable explanations of what happened. The question of whether corruption took place is one that all Bermudians will want to be answered once and for all.

It could be argued that tens of millions of dollars of public money spent without required Cabinet approval, without supporting documentation and without accompanying agreements or contracts, as was discovered by Ms Matthews, is on its own sufficient evidence for a fraud investigation by the police.

Certainly, the commission’s remit opens the possibility of a third stage of investigation in this process to punish wrongdoers in the courts and to recover any misappropriated public funds. As the Premier stated on Tuesday, the commission “can also refer any evidence of possible criminal activity, which the commission may identify, to the Director of Public Prosecutions or the police, and draw to the attention of the Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General any scope, which the commission may identify, to secure recompense under the Public Treasury Act, including financial instructions, and civil asset recovery”.

If wrongdoing was committed, those words will be chilling to anyone whose hands were in the till. But they will be heartening to anyone who cares about government accountability, including the large majority of civil servants who may feel unfairly tarnished by the Auditor-General’s findings.

Whatever the outcome of the inquiry, it is highly likely that those entrusted with stewardship of public funds will be extra mindful of the financial instructions in future.

However, only a thorough investigation, with meaningful consequences for those who broke the rules or worse, will satisfy the public that the Government has truly turned over a new leaf.