Bermuda needs an army of new accountants to attack bungling in public spending and crack down on tax-dodging, independent Auditor Larry Dennis said yesterday.

And he added that even Government-controlled bodies -- such as the Stonington Beach Hotel and the Hospitals Board -- were struggling from a lack of good administrators.

And he said: "If there aren't enough Bermudians, we have got to go abroad to get them.

"Many organisations have suffered from a lack of accountants -- accountants are hard to come by and lots of organisations are beginning to suffer from these shortages.'' And Mr. Dennis warned that just placing people in positions they could not handle failed to address the problem of dealing with millions of dollars in unaccounted for cash.

He said: "It's people just not paying their taxes and late financial reporting is something Government has to get to grips with. The accountants are not up to scratch and they have to be to control assets.'' He continued: "They have to look at the quality of staff they're getting -- people who can undertake the responsibilities expected. Sometimes, we put people in positions who don't have the ability to carry out the duties they want them to do. And sometimes -- if you get good people -- you don't have enough of them to do the work required.'' Mr. Dennis was speaking as he pledged to release a further list of shame detailing nearly 50 firms which owe Government a total of $5.4 million in unpaid payroll tax.

And Mr. Dennis said it was time the Tax Commissioner got tough on collecting an estimated $7 million in payroll tax listed as outstanding at June last year. Mr. Dennis' annual audit of Government said: "This practice is illegal and the statutes provide fines and imprisonment penalties for employers who fail to remit payroll taxes promptly.

"Despite this, some employers are still delaying remitting their payroll taxes, in some cases for considerable periods and amounts.'' And he insisted: "In my view, the Office of the Tax Commissioner should demonstrate a much lower tolerance for employers and other taxpayers that fail to remit taxes promptly.

"Legal consequences should be used to show that collecting and remitting taxes on time is a statutory requirement, not a discretionary choice.'' He added other taxes -- such as $4.9 million in overdue land tax -- were also not chased up aggressively enough.

`Accountants not up to scratch' But Mr. Dennis said: "Yet, at the time of the May 1998 audit, the Tax Commissioner did not accept my recommendation that collection procedures need to be more aggressive.'' And he warned that a list of 49 debtors -- with individual amounts as big as $317,000 -- would be published in next year's audit report.

The Royal Gazette reported yesterday that Mr. Dennis had carried through on his threat to publish a list of shame of firms which had failed to stump up a whopping $2.1 million in pension fund contributions.

He said: "It is particularly troubling that the names of some of the most flagrant transgressors also appear on the list of past-due remitters of pension contributions.'' And he warned that, if companies collapse owing back taxes, employees could suffer -- and Government could end up legally liable for shortfalls.

Mr. Dennis added that the Tax Commissioner "should have little difficulty'' collecting land tax because existing law allows them to seize property to collect the cash.

But he said: "This legal remedy, however, is virtually never used. Instead, after 90 days during which little effort is made to collect them, unpaid tax accounts are forwarded to the Government Debt Collection Office.

"The Debt Collection Office does not attempt to collect the taxes, but eventually forwards the accounts to the Attorney General's department where, after further time, a decision is reached on whether to issue a summons.'' Mr. Dennis added: "This process is time consuming and, as the arrears figures illustrate, not particularly effective. Unfortunately, it demonstrates to tax payers that they can defer paying their land taxes for considerable periods without penalty.'' Unpaid! $7 million in payroll tax $4.9 million in land tax $2.1 million in pension fund contributions