PUC says media owes commissioners an apology

By BBN Staff:  The Public Utilities Commission (PUC), several weeks after information of an audit of their financials allegedly got leaked to the media, is calling for an apology for the way the subject was reported by various media houses.

PUC Chairman, John Avery, said that various media houses covered the story without verifying the source of the information and effectively slandered the character of many of the commissioners, including himself.

Avery insisted that much of the information presented in the leak was inaccurate, and maliciously prepared in an attempt to bring the PUC into disrepute. He further alleged that the record of expenditures was accompanied by a management letter that was to be used for management purposes only, and not by a letter written by the auditor to the Prime Minister.

“The spreadsheet you saw was an Excel file, the PUC does not use excel. The person who authored that document had to copy the information electronically and manipulate it to tell the story he wanted to tell,” Avery said.

Avery also provided copies of the commission’s financials to support his claims. The documents, which surfaced in January, questioned the spending habits of PUC, including thousands of dollars spent on travel for the chairman and other commissioners as well as several other unnamed expenses.