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STAFF SUSPENDED..Five workers in PM's office sent home

Wednesday March 31 2004



by Marabel Jacobs (Antigua Sun)


Five secretarial staff of former Prime Minister Lester Bird's office, have been suspended from duties with full pay.

The five were slapped with suspension letters by the permanent secretary in the prime minister's office.

The suspension letters, which took effect yesterday, were handed to Beverly Percival, Barbara Thomas, Patricia Willock, Joyce Edwards and Sheila Fenton on Monday, pending the outcome of police investigations into missing documents from the prime minister's office.

Sources close to the affected workers said they reported to work on Monday and sat at their desks and were not given any instructions or provided with anything to do, but were later that day handed the letters.

The staffers have also been blocked from leaving the jurisdiction, as their names have been posted at the airport by the Immigration Department.

On 20 March, an alarm was raised and thousands of citizens and residents immediately gathered around the perimeter fence and the two main gates to the compound of the Office of the Prime Minister. There the secretarial staff were found along with a moving crew and more than half a dozen vehicles, seemingly engaged in the removal of items from the building.

The seven-member team investigating the missing documents from the prime minister's office has expressed concern that information is being leaked to those being investigated.

Senior police officers are allegedly passing on information to the people being investigated.

The officers are fearful that they may not achieve their objective if their investigations are being undermined.

The SUN has been reliably informed that some members of the team have threatened to resign as they feel their efforts have been hampered, since it appears that people who are bent on frustrating team's efforts are hindering their every move.

When contacted, head of the investigative team Phillip Isaac told the SUN: "I do not have any authority to give any information to the press."

And many more to come!