PSU Demands Audit Into Government Contract Payments

The Public Service Union is demanding answers from key government watchdogs following the recent disclosure of government payments made to the sister of Minister of State Oscar Mira through a series of procurement contracts. The union says the revelations raise serious questions about procurement procedures, contract approvals, payment processing, and whether existing financial safeguards were bypassed.  In a letter dated today, addressed to the Accountant General, Auditor General, and Contractor General, PSU President Dean Flowers called for a comprehensive review of what he describes as the practice of “payment structuring” or the splitting of payments into smaller amounts to avoid higher levels of scrutiny.  The union’s concerns stem from media reports showing that more than one-point-seven million dollars in payments were reportedly made to Minister Mira’s sister between 2020 and 2025 through hundreds of transactions processed in the government’s SmartStream financial system. The reports highlighted repeated payment amounts, multiple invoices approved on the same day, and a pattern of transactions kept below the ten-thousand-dollar threshold that ordinarily triggers additional oversight.  Flowers argues that if payments were deliberately structured below ten thousand dollars, they may have avoided the higher approval levels required by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury Department. According to Ministry of Finance Circular Number One of 2022, payments of ten thousand dollars or more require additional levels of approval, while smaller payments can be processed internally within ministries and departments.  The PSU is also asking whether any contracts that collectively exceeded fifty thousand dollars were submitted to the Office of the Contractor General as required under procurement rules. In support of that position, the union referenced a 2021 circular from the Office of the Contractor General which states that where separate contracts to a single supplier for similar goods or services are likely to exceed fifty thousand dollars in aggregate, those contracts should be submitted to both the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Contractor General before execution.  Among the information being requested are the names of ministries and departments where such practices may have occurred, details of vendors who received structured payments, copies of SmartStream invoices and purchase orders, and confirmation that all goods and services were properly procured and received. The PSU is further calling for a full audit covering the last five years and wants any breaches referred to law enforcement authorities for investigation.  The union maintains that the issue extends beyond any single vendor and instead speaks to the integrity of government financial controls. It says the Accountant General, Auditor General, and Contractor General now have a responsibility to determine whether procurement regulations, Treasury oversight requirements, and contractor review mechanisms were properly followed in the transactions under scrutiny.  Neither Minister Mira nor the relevant oversight agencies had publicly responded to PSU’s request at news time.