The public has the right to know what is in auditors' reports, according to the UK's Auditor General.

And reports should be made public as soon as they are published, said Sir John Bourn, the UK's Comptroller and Auditor General.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette yesterday while attending a conference on the Island, Sir John refused to be drawn into the controversy surrounding reports compiled by Bermuda's Auditor General Larry Dennis - and the thorny issue about these allegedly damning reports not being released by Government.

“Governments should recognise if democracy is to work, information should be available,” he said.

“There should be a free press and there should be a free Auditor General.”

In Bermuda reports have not been published because they first have to be tabled in Parliament and one crucial and controversial report was stalled in the run-up to the election, leading to allegations that the Government was sitting on the reports to avoid being publicly criticised by the Auditor General.

Sir John was yesterday speaking to more than 40 auditors general from the Caribbean region and about 20 local delegates to the Sixth Congress of the Caribbean Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (CAROSAI) being held at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

The CAROSAI conference runs this week from August 11 to 15.

It was set up to promote understanding and co-operation among members institutions through the exchange of audit ideas and experiences, audit techniques, audit programmes, audit manuals, formats and standards for public sector accounts and training in public sector accounts and audit.

Sir John said that in the UK the auditor published all reports regardless of whether Parliament sat, and that this was becoming more and more regular practice around the world.

“I am not able to talk on the situation in Bermuda, but as a general principal across the world, international organisations, of which CAROSAI is one regional grouping, it is one of the principals that the reports of the auditor general should be published, should be made available to the members of Parliament, to the media and to the people. An independent audit demands that,” he said.

Sir John said that there was an extra understanding between the islands and the UK and they could mutually help each other with problems they faced.

“One of the interesting features is the islands and the United Kingdom do start from a common base, a basic structure. The public sector audit is on similar lines because they are all members of the British Commonwealth, so we start with an understanding of each other.

“But we also are countries of different sizes and the political arrangements and culture in each case is different. We are sufficiently alike to understand each other but sufficiently different to learn from each other.”

And he said his office in the UK, which is from a country with 60 million people has experience in financial audit, including the use of information technology, performance audit in human resource management.

“This is an important aspect for the running of an audit office - recruiting the right people, managing them properly and training them. Also in providing support in transparency to stakeholders, public accounts committees, legislatures and to our relations with the media... all these are some of the areas we can, from our experience, make a contribution.

“It is collaboration among friends. The members of the audit office of the Caribbean countries are all very well educated, intelligent people and its out of that kind of exchange of ideas and experience that all of us benefit.”