3 weeks ago
23
More than a month after the National Institute of Culture and History confirmed that unauthorized withdrawals and payments were made from National Celebrations Commission funds, Minister of Culture Francis Fonseca has now confirmed that two persons were identified and penalized in connection with the matter. Minister Fonseca, who chairs the National Celebrations Commission, was asked yesterday for an update on the matter. He confirmed that two individuals had been fingered and penalized, while indicating that action had been taken to address the wrongdoing.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs: “This is my first day back so I haven’t gotten a briefing on that as yet but as soon as I do I’ll be able to report to you. But yes, I mean as I understand it, I don’t know if it’s $45,000 but I think obviously an audit was done, conducted that audit, discovered that there were some inaccuracies in terms of funds and that was addressed but I have to get an update on what has been happening since I was away. I can confirm that I think one of them was, one of them no longer works at NICH so that relationship has been terminated and I think the other one who I think in terms of the audit indicated that that person played a much less significant role, a secondary role process, that person was simply was placed on leave and of course paid back all of the money that was identified as being misappropriated and that person was then I think transferred to another position. As I said it was discovered through an audit and you know everything has been done to ensure that there is a clear process in place to make sure that that does not happen in the future.”
On May 12, NICH President Albert Vaughan confirmed to Love News that the issue was discovered in the middle of 2024 and involved two NICH employees who had also served on the secretariat of the National Celebrations Commission in 2023. Vaughan said the withdrawals and payments were not made from NICH’s own funds, but from the National Celebrations Commission’s account. At the time, Vaughan said NICH’s board decided to pursue the employees for recovery of the money, and that a settlement was reached under which both persons agreed to reimburse the funds. However, he declined to say how much money was involved, citing confidentiality clauses in the settlement agreement. /
English (US) ·