Top staffer suspended

The state-owned Transport Board has placed its Financial Controller Felicia Sue on suspension.

Sue, who four days ago appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament and once again testified about several financial irregularities at the bus company, has been suspended for several months, sources said. They explained that her suspension came before the heightening of the COVID-19 pandemic here.

Investigations by Barbados TODAY revealed that the decision to temporarily remove her from her job stems from ongoing internal investigations emerging from a special probe by the board.

“She will remain on suspension pending the outcome of the investigations,” a reliable source said.

The source said the Financial Controller is the only board employee who has so far been suspended as a result of the special audit probe.

When contacted for comment, the board’s Chief Executive Officer Fabian Wharton would only confirm the suspension.

Sue testified before the PAC back in January this year as part of a probe triggered by the Auditor General’s report that highlighted financial irregularities at the state enterprise.

One irregularity which came up for discussion at the PAC hearings surrounded the Auditor General’s determination that the Transport Board was charged twice by Trans Tech Inc for the same work done on the same bus, on four occasions. The eight invoices totaled $257,149.08, which was $128,574.54 more than was due. According to the report, the only differences were the invoice numbers on the eight invoices submitted by the supplier.

The report also raised questions about the frequency which the reconditioned transmissions, which were supplied mainly by Trans Tech, were being replaced in the buses, bringing into sharp focus questions of quality assurance. It was charged that on 178 buses, there were 601 transmission installations during the period in question. In one case, a single bus received five transmission installations in 19 months while another had four in five months even though the transmissions were guaranteed to last two years.

At the January hearing, Sue told the PAC that she had serious concerns about the amount of money being spent in bus repairs especially since it did not translate to more bus availability. She had also claimed that despite multiple red flags in 2015 regarding poor adherence to financial accountability protocols, the concerns were ignored by the management.

When she continued her testimony last Monday, Sue pointed to several other financial irregularities which occurred at the bus company.

Among them was an invoice for payment from the then chairman, to reimburse over $14 819 of his personal monies used to purchase tools and equipment for the Quality Assurance department.

Sue, who has been employed by the Transport Board for the past 15 years, said the then general manager sent a memo to her regarding payment to chairman Anthony Wiltshire.

The PAC is probing alleged improprieties at the board between 2015 and 2018. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb