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Scathing comments from opposition MPs

OBA leader Craig Cannonier.

One Bermuda Alliance leader Craig Cannonier last night said the Auditor General's latest damning report highlights how Government has different priorities to its people.Mr Cannonier drew attention to Heather Jacobs Matthews' observations that Government showed a complete disregard for the concept of looking after public money and her amazement at its lack of commitment to good governance.“These are damning statements. What should this mean to the people of Bermuda?” asked the Opposition Leader in a statement.“It indicates that Government priorities are not the people's priorities. This is a Government, after all, that is laying off teachers, cutting back on social services, holding off on road repairs, while making a big deal about being careful with the people's money and doing ‘more with less'.“Although the monies involved in these two investigations are not significant, the ‘misuses' exposed by the Auditor General reveals a climate in which rules are disregarded and accountability to the people is not important. It reveals, in short, a Government for insiders.”Mr Cannonier said the report also appeared to show Government tried to thwart the Auditor General's investigations.“It reveals the Government using its power to deny information to the Auditor General, prompting her to question whether it had something to hide,” he said.Charlie Swan, who was elected as a United Bermuda Party MP, said the report highlights the degree to which “greed, avarice and arrogance” have infiltrated the behaviour of the Progressive Labour Party administration.Mr Swan said in a statement: “The greatest tragedy is that the persons who are required to protect the public purse, Government Ministers and senior civil servants, are the ones put under the spotlight by the Auditor.“Under the guise of doing the people's business we find it to be that self-interest is their business.”The Southampton West Central MP said he and colleague Kim Swan are concerned that the Auditor General's Office is overworked with efforts to address unethical behaviour by Government officials.“Right thinking, hard working Bermudian citizens and businesses should question whether their hard earned tax dollars should be remitted to a careless, spendthrift and unaccountable Government that appears to be beyond control,” he said.