Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley has called for a probe into the National Drug Commission ? claiming it has failed to tackle Bermuda's drug addiction problem.

Mr. Dunkley said the Government quango, which distributes funds to various drug treatment agencies, also needed to be investigated for failing to disclose financial information for two years.

In this year's Budget, the NDC received a $300,000 grant of the $11 million generated from the termination of the US bases agreement, a sum not included in the Health Ministry's budget.

The NDC has trimmed funding to the Salvation Army's Harbour Light programme by 50 percent in comparison to the funding received last year.

Fair Havens, the Island's only residential treatment centre for women received a $100,000 grant last year from the NDC, but no longer receives funding.

While he said he does not believe there was anything suspicious going on financially, Mr. Dunkley said the organisation must be held accountable for how it spends money since he charged it had had "no success" making a dent in drug treatment over the last two years.

"The auditor has slammed the NDC for not having its financial reports which contravenes the rules of the House of Assembly," he said.

Auditor General Larry Dennis told this week the NDC has been asked to meet its deadlines for supplying Government with its financial information since 2002 and has yet to do so. In his report he detailed a number of inaccuracies in the year end accounting statements.

"Such an organisation has the nerve to ask for help from the community when they can't even give their financial information out to the community," he said. "They owe it to the community to update accordingly."

In his 2003 Report, Mr. Dennis said in the 2001 financial statements of the NDC there were "unreconciled" and unexplained accounting balances totalling $75,000 arising from a restatement of capital asset costs.

The last audited financial statements issued by the Commission were for the year which ended in March, 2001. Cash in hand at the Commission totalled $974,000, Government revenue grants of $2.7 million, and programme costs of $2.4 million.

"For an organisation to hold, receive, and public monies of this magnitude, and not present timely accountability reports to the Minister and the House, is, in my opinion, unacceptable."

NDC chairman Reverend Andrew Doughty said the accounts from 2002 ? 2004 were waiting to be audited and were all "in good order". Rev. Doughty could not say why the organisation had not met its financial deadlines.

He did say the NDC was an organisation which works to liaise with public and private drug treatment agencies and has the authority to establish drug treatment programmes of its own.

"I would have reservations as to exactly why Mr. Dunkley is calling for a probe. I have no doubt a review of the NDC would show that everything has turned up OK."

When questioned by as to whether or not statistics or research was available on the success rate of drug treatment programmes or on the effectiveness of programmes funded by the NDC and potential donors, Reverend Doughty said the individual programmes funded by the NDC would keep statistics as there are none available through the organisation.

Mr. Dunkley said the NDC has always had a "broad and encompassing mandate" but it acted more as an administrative body in the past, rather than as a drug treatment provider.

"We've been talking about this for some time, how can we work on an effective budget if we haven't seen the financial reports for the last two years?" he said.

Mr. Dunkley said it is necessary to ensure different agencies work in tandem rather than duplicate similar services.

He pointed out that duplicating similar drug treatment services cuts down on the money available from Government and the private sector and leaves different agencies competing for funding when they could be working together to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Past funding provided by the Council Partners Charitable Trust reveals that organisations such as Fair Havens Christian Care Association, PRIDE, CADA and Focus Counselling all received funding from 2001-2003 from the Council Partners Charitable Trust, which has since disbanded.

The closure of the former charitable group has meant new money must be found for organisations which the pair us to fund on a joint basis. The National Drug Commission (NDC) was formerly funded by the CPCT.

However the CPCT disbanded in November 2003 after raising more than $9 million for the Island's drugs agencies over the last decade.

Presently, the NDC funds the Salvation Army's Harbour Light and Life Skills programme, Camp Spirit, and FOCUS.

Mr. Dunkley said the NDC has not been able to tackle the drug abuse problem effectively, and as a result, the general public was in denial.

"What is happening is that we are turning away from alcohol and drug abuse and people are thinking that it's not that big of a deal.

"Some of the allocations of funds have made me choke. When I looked at all the money they spent on advertising an event I thought why spend money on the advertising when we have a drug problem?"

Last month, NDC CEO Don Philip said the organisation has taken steps to rationalise its financial support to drug treatment agencies. Dr. Philip did not return calls this week.