Dan Duguay Auditor General

During a cabinet press briefing on Wednesday, the Leader of Government Business/Premier Designate, Hon. McKeeva Bush, hit back at Auditor General Dan Duguay, who has raised concerns about the port tendering process, accusing Mr Duguay of attemptingto undermine the project.

“The Auditor General is a key figure, and he is working in conjunction with others to undermine the government’s attempt to move forward with the awarding of the contract and the development of the berthing facility,” Mr Bush said.

“He believes that he has unfettered rights to say and do whatever he wants. He has to be responsible and accountable. He has gone out and is shooting from the hip. He believes he is some kind of cowboy,” the Leader of Government Business said.

Mr Duguay previously indicated that the government might have not followed normal business practices during the tendering process by not going before the Central Tenders Committee, and promised to carry out an audit as soon as the winning bidder was named.

“The Auditor General thinks that he is not accountable to anyone. I would not leave anything up to him because he does not understand anything.

“In my opinion the Auditor General has acted recklessly without first going to government to satisfy himself before creating a media circus. It is a reckless use of his office,” Mr Bush said.

Mr Bush noted that Jamaica and Mexico are in the process of building ports and that Cuba is in the process of building six ports.

“We want to get on with building the port because there are other ports that are aggressively seeking the cruise lines.”

“If those countries get into a commitment from the cruise lines to go to those countries then it will be very difficult for us to get them to come here,” he said.

“He (Mr Duguay) is acting in a joint effort with someone else and is trying to throw cold water on anything that we are trying to do,” said Mr Bush.

“There are forces at work who will not want to see this country move forward with the $150 million project. He (Mr Duguay) is hell bent on stopping us from getting revenue into the country,” he said.

Mr Bush said that in so doing, Mr Duguay would not be immune from a law suit, stating that he had legal advisors in London who will sue “them.”