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Central Region Kept Ipad Purchase Secret
posted (May 27, 2014)
The Auditor General's damning report on the Central Health Region. We told you about portions of it last Thursday and Friday, and we continue tonight, as we unearth the full details of those two ipads purchased under dubious circumstances:...

Jules Vasquez reporting
The auditors found that Regional Manager Melinda Guerra authorized the preparation and approval of twelve (12) payments totaling $16,997.99, which misrepresented the service or item ordered, received and paid for by the CHR.

The auditor laments,

"We were particularly concerned about the apparent intentional disguising and misrepresentation of key information on official payment documents and records for it creates an environment that is susceptible to fraud, waste and abuse."

And that's just what seemed to have happened in the case of three thousand dollars paid for two Ipad minis. These were recorded as "payments for 2 hard drives" - but when the auditors looked into the records, they found that, quote,

"the 2 hard drives that were requested via requisition…ordered on purchase orders …was a fiction and were not received. The accounts section was provided with the tax invoice which was also a misrepresentation of what the transaction was about.

The auditors conclude that "No one other than Guerra and the Financial Officer, Judith Swift, knew of the Ipads….the FO Judith Swift, (volunteered) that the items in question were in the (Guerra's office)."

Guerra's secretary found both Apple Ipad Minis stored in a cabinet in Guerra's office.

Both Guerra and FO Swift, admitted that they were aware of the fact, that what was ordered and paid for was not received.

Still, months after he saw this report, Allen stood by her.

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."

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