In the wake of the Auditor's Special Report on the Motor Vehicle Safety and Emissions Testing Programme — better known as the new TCD — there have been calls for various forms of investigation, from criminal investigations to forensic or construction audits to Royal Commissions on corruption and the like. This is not surprising.

The Auditor General's Report raised a great many concerns about poor practices in the issuance of contracts and the lack of tenders in the Transport Ministry, the lack of financial controls in the supervision of projects of this kind, and about political interference. Some of what she raised was already known, and had been reported on by this newspaper three years ago.

This included the fact that the original consulting contract given to Bermuda Emissions Control Ltd. had not been tendered, that the subsequent contract to oversee emissions testing and vehicle testing was not tendered either and that BECL then gave the contract to build the new TCD to a company part owned by one of its owners, again without a tender.

What the Auditor General's report showed is that almost none of the financial and building controls laid down as standard operating procedure were in place in the construction of the TCD building. The report says the Permanent Secretary of Transport ignored an explicit instruction from Cabinet to conduct an open tender for the two satellite facilities. The Auditor General says this was not done. Instead two "quotes" were received having been requested from consultants hired to look at Correia Construction's quote to see if it was reasonable; that is not the same thing.

Even more remarkably, Correia received its contract before detailed drawings had been completed. The Accountant General, who had questioned the whole "build then buy" BECL deal gave the taxpayer value for money, was subjected to political pressure "to just make it happen".

The report also revealed that Cabinet authorised TCD to engage an independent consultant to monitor the project, but never did so, meaning TCD had no way of verifying that the numbers provided by BECL and Correia were accurate or justified.

There's a great deal more in the report. But it is fair to say that the report still leaves some questions unanswered, primarily just how the original estimate for the project went from $5 million to $15 million. The Auditor General provides a timeline, changes in the scope of the project, explanations from the Ministry of Transport for some of the price increases, but in the end, the numbers still don't seem to add up.

The Auditor General has proposed that the Ministry conduct a construction audit to determine if some of the construction costs can be recovered. Curiously this has been "taken under advisement" rather than accepted with alacrity by the Permanent Secretary of Transport and Tourism.

That suggests that the Ministry is unwilling to police itself. If the TCD project was the only one where financial controls were ignored and costs were allowed to soar, it would be one thing. But this is a pattern that has been repeated at Berkeley, the new Police and Courts building, the Heritage Wharf at Dockyard and myriad other Government projects.

With massive public investment looming at the new National Sports Centre swimming pool and elsewhere, it is critical that the new Premier name an independent commission with the power to subpoena to investigate all Government capital projects. Only then will the public get the answers it deserves and only then will the public have confidence that its money is not being lost on wasteful public projects.