And we weren’t done with Allen yet.  As we told you the interview with four media houses was 40 minutes on a hot and humid day.  Sure, Allen spent about 30 of those minutes in his own personal spin zone, cooled by a steady stream of hot air…but we did get to ask him pointedly about the presence of Melinda Guerra at today’s ceremony.  She’s the manager of the Central Health Region – and an audit of her performance came upon irregularities.  Today we asked Allen if her presence at an official ceremony means that she had been cleared for all duties:
Mike Rudon - Channel 5 News
"She's a person who was named in an audit investigating irregularities, misappropriation of funds in the Central Region. Could you tell us today if her presence here today is a signal that all is cleared, that she's been cleared of all wrongdoing?"
Dr. Peter Allen
"The Public Service Commission hasn't heard yet. You're very well informed, the report of course if confidential for the Public Service Commission, but there are some officers who have been named. Now obviously, naming somebody in a report is quite a different thing than finding somebody guilty of any wrong doing. The allegations, as far as I understand them, are not of the nature of funds being missing, but perhaps more of not quite following regulations as they should have been followed - that's just my understanding. With Miss Guerra, she was actually suspended for a while, but she is an extremely senior officer, and the allegations were made rather a long time ago. We do need the expertise and the functions of that senior officer. She's a regional manager, and so, we are comfortable with her being in her position where she is. We strongly believe that she is innocent until proven otherwise, and I have no reason to believe that she will be proven anything other than a good life-long public officer, who may have made a couple of mistakes."
He says that certain authorities have been removed from Guerra as a precaution and finance officers come down to do authorizations.
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