REGINA – Three employees have been fired from the Ministry of Central Services for falsifying timesheets and claiming for time not worked to the tune of $24,000. It’s part of the estimated $73,000 the government said was lost during the fiscal third quarter of the 2014-15 budget year.
Government officials say along with the employees being dismissed, the ministry is pursuing recovery of the money. The Ministry of Central Services provides services to other government employees, including human resources, accommodations, transportation and IT services.
The Ministry of Justice reported a loss of around $41,000 after a contractor for the court fine option program allegedly took payoffs from people on the Big River First Nation in lieu of them completing their mandatory community service hours. Sylvia Grace Joseph is facing over 100 charges as part of the RCMP investigation.
READ MORE: Big River, Sask. woman allegedly scams court fine system
The Saskatoon Health Region reported two losses during the third quarter. The first was on Oct. 11, when $843 in narcotics were stolen from a cabinet at City Hospital. Saskatoon police and health region officials continue to investigate.
In the second case, the health region says an employee racked up an estimated $3,000 in personal international calls and excessive data usage over a two-year period. A labour relations investigation is ongoing.
In the Heartland Health Region, an employee falsely stated their date of birth, resulting in overpayments of over $3,100 to the disability pension plan and Canada Pension Plan. The health region says it became aware of the discrepancy when the employee was terminated.
A fraud investigation was launched and health region officials say $3,000 owed to the employee is begn held back until the overpayments have been recovered.
SaskPower reported a corporate tablet that was being stored and a computer undergoing testing were stolen. The combined value was over $1,300 and SaskPower says increased prevention controls are being implemented.
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