Important, life changing verdict

The higher court of appeal supported a decision made by Parliament in 2016 regarding the dismissal of the parliamentary registrant, the highest paid GOA employee.

Ten complaints were lodged against the registrant. In addition, she did a sloppy job in actually registering parliamentary decisions.

The complaints, verified by a forensic accounting team, cited the private use of work credit card, and in general mixing private and work expenses, blurring the lines between state business and personal life.

She got a car allowance, yet drove a GOA owned D car. We call that double dipping.

She dropped her daughter off at school and at after-school activities in that GOA owned car.

I am not going to repeat the list of offenses, they are all petty, no grand embezzlement schemes here, nothing incredibly outrageous, all infractions are mundane and normal, I can understand how she slipped into the habit of charging GOA for her own expenses, after all, she was the job, the job was her, 24/7/365.

I bet, hundreds of GOA owned cars drop kids at schools every morning.

YET, the judge just reiterated, it is verboten, not acceptable, forbidden, you cannot use an official vehicle for ANYTHING but government business.

Wouldn’t it be better if high officials were given a car allowance, then they would lease their own cars and drop their own kids at school in their own vehicle, and speak to their spouses on their own private phones instead of the business number, etc.

There has been a slow erosion of boundaries, in civil service, what is permitted and what is not.

And this verdict is the first step to remedy rampant double dipping.

 

 

 

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February 24, 2021
Rona Coster