CRIME Chief Wendell Blanhum confirmed yesterday that the 20+ files in the multi-million-dollar Public Service Ministry fraud, which were sent to the Director of Public Prosecution and were returned to his desk, have again been returned to the DPP.He said this development occurred last week after the police were able to complete several additional tasks requested by the DPP after she had initially studied the files.

The Senior Police Superintendent had recently indicated that some amount of tidying up of the files had to be done in order for the DPP to know exactly what offences were committed and what charges should be proffered, lest loopholes be found if and when the matter proceeded to the court.

Soon after the new government had taken office, a massive fraud was discovered at the Public Service Ministry, where funds were transferred to the ministry through the Office of the President for the review of the Public Service and its policies, but those reviews were never done.
Embroiled in these investigations are former Public Service Minister Dr. Jennifer Westford and former Personnel Manager of that Ministry, Margret Cummings, who reportedly signed off on receiving the cash and also used their signatures to confirm that the exercises were carried out, when in fact the exercises were never done.

At the moment, these two former functionaries are before the court for transferring several luxury vehicles of the state to themselves for personal use. They have both been placed on bail for the offences.