The police may shortly be called in to investigate whether there was an act of fraud involved in the disbursement of $500,000 from the Social and Economic Support Programme (SESP) for educational support for two persons.

This was disclosed yesterday by Patricia Sinclair McCalla, permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, during her appearance before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Sinclair McCalla, in a prepared statement, revealed that the police would be asked to investigate the matter if relevant information requested in relation to the disbursements was not provided by the end of this week.

It was in July 2005 that the Social Development Commission (SDC) was reportedly instructed by an officer in the SESP unit to prepare a cheque for $500,000, made payable to a commercial bank, from which two education grants were to be made to two university students.

The money was taken from the Office of the Prime Minister's "reserve allocation" in the SESP budget, as educational support for the two students.

Irregular approach

The permanent secretary told the PAC that this approach was irregular and that the officer involved had been reprimanded and instructed to account for the spending of the money in the manner set out.

The chronology of events presented at the PAC hearing revealed that on July 13, 2005, two days after the instruction to prepare the cheque was given, it was prepared and made payable to the Bank of Nova Scotia, Knutsford Boulevard branch. Five days later, the officer reportedly collected the cheque from the SDC and signed the log to acknowledge that it was in his custody.

On March 5 last year, the officer, in a memorandum, explained that he had facilitated the transfer of funds from the SESP to a female beneficiary for school expenses.

Beneficiaries named

In the permanent secretary's written statement, and in her comments to the PAC, however, the names of two beneficiaries were mentioned.

So far, a university in the United States has confirmed that it received payments on behalf of one of the beneficiaries, but the source of this payment has not yet been verified.

The officer had been asked to provide "acceptable documentation" to confirm that the money from the SESP was used to assist in the educational costs of the other student.

The PAC members, including the chairman, Dr Omar Davies, the former minister of finance, expressed surprise at the ease with which the money had been disbursed.

This, according to Dr Davies, was very odd, given that MPs are required to provide detailed justification for every disbursement recommended. Furthermore, he said, with each MP allowed only $3.2 million to fund projects in his constituency, it would have been very difficult to secure as much as $500,000 for a single purpose, as happened in this instance.

The officer's service was terminated in January when the SESP unit was closed down as part of a shift in government policy.