Government reports about $8K in losses of public money in second quarter

One government employee was fired and another was suspended after Saskatchewan’s comptroller examined the province’s losses in the second quarter of 2021.

From July 1 to Sept. 30, there were two losses of public money reported within government ministries. The Crown Investments Corporation said there weren’t any losses at Crown corporations.

On the government side, an employee of the Ministry of Environment was fired for fraudulently submitting timecards that included time not worked between October of 2019 and April of 2020.

According to the government, the employee claimed $4,366.77 on the timecards. To date, $3,113.33 has been recovered and the ministry is seeking to get the rest.

In July, the Ministry of Highways found three instances from 2016 and 2019 when a ministry employee was reimbursed for travel expenses from the federal government for out-of-province conferences where expenses were charged to a government-issued purchase card.

The employee didn’t provide the $3,452 in reimbursements to the ministry until the incidents were flagged by auditors. The employee was suspended for five days and then transferred. The employee also repaid the amount of the loss.