Today's press conference also gave us a chance to ask Chairman John Avery about the allegations of reckless spending by the PUC.
Last month, the contents of an un-finalized audit were circulated to the press. They painted a picture of supposed lavish spending and misuse of public funds.
When we first started following the story, Avery told us that those documents were unsubstantiated, and today, he maintained that same position. This time, however, he provided the the final audit from their auditor Cedric Flowers, to prove that those leaked files were not showing the true financial picture of the PUC.
And, at the press conference, the Chairman gave the media tongue lashing, calling the coverage of this leaked as irresponsible journalism. Here's how he put it:
John Avery, Chairman - PUC
"A majority of commissioners and other people related to the PUC are of the opinion basically that we should share our financial statements with the media. We have copies of these to send out to you all. However, I'd just like to make a couple comments with regards to the coverage that has been given recently about alleged reports and that sort of thing. I think in general several media houses were very irresponsible in the coverage they gave, the documents they claim to have had. Many media houses, to give their articles or their stories credibility in effect in assassination of the auditor. No professional auditor would conduct an audit for anyone and submit any report or any letter concerning that audit to anyone outside unless they were required by law. Many media houses claim that they had letters that our auditor wrote to the prime minister. Many of them called me and I told them that was not so, but they still went ahead and said that. None of them questioned the source of the 'so called' documents that they had and basically said those documents were related to an audit being conducted by our auditor. If any of them had taken just the time to click on those files, go to the properties, you would have seen who the author of those documents were and it wasn't the auditor."
We'll have more from Avery's rebuttal of those initial documents in tomorrow's newscast.
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