Dr. Russel INVESTIGATIONS by the Ministry of Finance into the irregularities at STATIN involving former head Dr. Fitz-Albert Russell affair led to recommendations that the $150,000 involved in the consultancy contract he carried out was to be paid back, according to sources close to the agency.
However according to these sources, no money has been either withheld or returned, since no instructions to that effect have yet been communicated to STATIN.
There has been no further word on the status of the money involved in the aborted contract with Winsome Russell, or whether the former Director-General of STATIN will be allowed to resume his former position at the Ministry of Education without an investigation by the Services Commission.
Yesterday attempts to contact the Russels were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has sought to distance itself from the Russell affair, while verifying last week's Financial Gleaner report on the issue.
In a disclaimer published days after the story, UNDP resident representative, Gillian Lindsay-Nanton, confirmed that a check for US$20,000 was disbursed to STATIN by the UNDP in December 1999, as indicated by documents made available to the Financial Gleaner. This was the original US$ equivalent of the money referred to in the story with regard to the contract awarded to Winsome Russell.
However, Mrs. Lindsay-Nanton pointed out that in disbursing the cash, the UNDP was merely acting as a disbursement agency for the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and that it was the ILO and not the UNDP which had negotiated a contract with STATIN.
