Nassau, Bahamas — Storm clouds are hovering over the MET office and we are advised a funnel cloud is ready to suck some officers in the department out of the room. There is more information coming to our attention from our “deep throat” in the Office of the Prime Minister [OPM] on the stench of corruption emanating from the MET department. Bahamas Press can confirm an intensive investigation is now underway and officers in the ministry of finance believe they are just scraping the surface.
BP has obtained more documents confirming the fleecing exercise in the Met Department; causing the government a ton-a-money while senior officials pockets get grease.
You are now aware of how Sol Kerzner’s Paradise Island was given an Automatic Weather Station free of charge although he was willing to pay for it. You also know how Automatic Weather Stations in Sandy Point Abaco, Crooked Island, Bimini, and in Grand Bahama are all not properly functioning and are in URGENT NEED OF REPAIR. [This is another disaster just waiting to happen].
But here is what you didn’t know, BP is advised by our “deep throat” that sometime back in 2007 senior officials namely Baron Bain then Chief MET Officer and Godfery Burnside ordered a spanking new radio transmitter for the department. We are told the system cost taxpayers more than $27,000. However, when the system arrived in the capital, it was outdated and thus could not be used. We are told to this day the MET OFFICE has no radio transmitter and the taxpayers are stuck with another piece a junk.
The confirmation of this flop was documented in a communication submitted to Permanent Secretary, Ronald Thompson, earlier this year and that’s not all.
In that communication to the PS, the investigators discovered the department heads were also prepared to bankrupt the treasury by continuously repairing three computers abroad used for radar transmission at a cost of $20,000 a time. Investigators discovered the computers could be repaired locally for less than $1,000, begging the question, how much of the money had officers in the department been fleecing from the government and for how long?
Investigations also revealed that while on the job in Nicholls Town Andros a senior officer of the department reportedly was visibly abusing government per diem, driving up and down in the government’s car, removing staffers off the job all in an effort to campaign for local Govt elections in the area.
Our “deep throat” in the OPM tells us, “The system failures, abuse, fleecing and outright corruption in the MET department have taken us by surprise, now three of our sons are dead, the department is set for a major shakeup.”
Ronald Thompson/PS >>>
