The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jeff Lloyd is anxious for police to complete their investigation into allegations that workers defrauded taxpayers of nearly $450,000 by manipulating a system of stipends and honoraria.

Accountability, he said in a recent interview, must be seen to be done.

Auditor General Terrance Bastian exposed the alleged scheme in a September 12, 2018 report that this newspaper revealed last January. His report prompted the police investigation.

The Ministry of Public Service eventually issued show cause letters to 10 people implicated in the scheme and required the high-level employees to defend themselves against allegations in order to avoid termination.

The employment status of the employees is not clear.

Public Services Minister Brensil Rolle said yesterday: “Because my permanent secretary was at the Ministry of Education at the time this matter was occurring, she set up an independent committee to look at it so she could not be directly involved.”

As for the police investigation, Mr Lloyd said: “We’ve been waiting now for the police to conclude investigations into that. The last report I received was that the police (were) still interviewing individuals and once that is concluded––and we didn’t receive a timeline as to when that will be concluded––they will, of course, be sending their recommendations to us. The inspector that was in charge of that I spoke to him about a month and a half ago and he said they are proceeding with the investigation and he estimates there will be another few persons he has to talk to to determine exactly if there will be a need for any other persons to interview.”

The scheme resulted in taxpayers being defrauded of $448,230. There was no accompanying formal approval from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Public Service for the alleged payments. In one instance, an assistant accountant received 43 honoraria payments of $15,505 in 44 months while another accountant received $61,113 in 32 instalments in 20 months. The Office of the Attorney General recommended ten people face disciplinary action for fraud.

“What we are faced with in the ministry itself is there are individuals who feel whatever they feel about this and they are concerned there has not been a conclusion. It’s the little things that affect morale and this is not a little thing, it’s a big thing so you can imagine what the morale is within that particular department,” Mr Lloyd said.

“We are more than delighted to bring this to a conclusion that let the chips fall where they may and whoever needs to be accountable be held accountable and it may also reflect that there needs to be certain adjustments, changes within our system to ensure greater transparency and accountability and, of course, that’s what we in the FNM are all about,” he added. “Let’s make people more accountable, let’s make people transparent because you are dealing with the people’s resources. We said it’s the people’s time and we mean that. It’s your time to know how your money is being spent and your time to be given an account to know how that money is being spent.”