Minister Bernard Defends SmartStream Access Restrictions
Minister of Health and Wellness Kevin Bernard is defending the government’s recent decision to restrict finance officers’ access to the SmartStream financial system to their own ministries only. He calls the move a sound internal control measure rather than an attempt to shield ongoing investigations.
The restriction comes amid an ongoing audit and scandal involving the Ministry of Defence. Speaking from experience as a former auditor, Bernard said limiting access across ministries reflects standard practice. “I will respond to that, and I will put on my hat as a former auditor myself and somebody who studied finance, coming from the private sector. In the private sector, they can hardly have access to certain information. I understand the concerns coming from those who are saying that the government made a decision to restrict persons, but I think it’s by right. Every ministry has a finance officer, and that finance officer should have access to the ministry’s information. But that doesn’t lock out Treasury, and that doesn’t lock out the main Ministry of Finance, who have overall access. Restricting an individual ministry from having access to other ministries, I think, from my perspective, is the right thing to do.”
Bernard compared the change to standard practice in the private sector, arguing that broad cross-departmental access previously undermined proper financial controls.
“If I was working in the private sector, and I’m the CEO of this company, and I have my accounts clerks, and everybody shares people’s information and data out there, you’re undermining that company’s fiduciary responsibilities too. What government is doing, and what I believe the decision of the Ministry of Finance, the Finance Secretary, whoever made the decision, was to ensure that yes, your ministry has access to your data. The sole ministry that will have access to everybody else is Treasury, the ones that have to go through all the verification.”
Asked whether the change effectively creates a “firewall” preventing officials from seeing transactions in other ministries that may be relevant to their own work, Bernard pushed back on the premise. “My question has always been, why would agriculture need to know what defence is doing? Your responsibility as a minister is to deal with matters related to your ministry. The only ministry that I see that should have all access to everybody’s information and data is the Ministry of Finance, who at the end is the final approver of any payments being made through the SmartStream system. I don’t see what the argument is in terms of my finance officer at the Ministry of Health not being able to see what is happening at the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Climate Change. Her function and her role as a finance officer are for the Ministry of Health and Wellness in this case.”
Bernard suggested the change addresses a longstanding structural weakness in the SmartStream system that had gone unaddressed until recently. “That is what I believe was a weakness of the system, and nobody had paid it attention; nobody had addressed the issue until recently. If you ask me, have constrictive policies and things been put in place to ensure that the procurement processes are strengthened and that processes are tightened? I support that.”
Bernard also pointed to broader anti-corruption reforms he says Belize has already implemented in line with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), including a central procurement unit, whistleblower legislation currently under consultation, civil asset recovery legislation, and mandatory annual financial declarations for politically exposed persons.