Khemkaran Singh Financial Controller

By Tad Stoner
tad@caymannetnews.com

The University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI) has asked Financial Controller Khemkaran Singh to resign, placing him on administrative leave and assigning a temporary replacement as fears mount for his immediate future.

The move comes as UCCI seeks to untangle the complex financial affairs left by former college president Hassan Syed, whose sudden 12 May resignation came just prior to an Auditor General report detailing significant “irregularities” in his official accounts.

“The Board asked [Mr Singh] to resign, but he has not tendered the resignation because that would mean he can receive no remuneration and cannot charge them with unfair dismissal,” said author and part-time UCCI lecturer Roy Bodden.

“This violates everything in my person; it sullies my Caymanian sense of propriety. I am disturbed by this whole process, that this guy should take the fall for the people whose fault this really is,” he said.

Mr Singh, who recently signed a new three-year contract after universally positive performance reviews, refused to comment.

Colleagues close to the Trinidad-born Financial Controller said, however, that Mr Singh’s sudden suspension during the week of 3 November was an attempt by the UCCI Board to shift blame for the Syed fiasco.

“The board is using him as a scapegoat. They have said they intend to terminate him. They say he should have come to them and told them [about Mr Syed’s unauthorised expenditures], but that he didn’t,” said one source, asking anonymity as the situation developed. “In fact, he did go to the Dean and tell him; he also went to the Audit Office.

”Equally, the board never came to him; they never asked for a meeting and the Chairman never talked to him. The police, and the officer investigating the situation said he had done nothing wrong,” she said.

UCCI officials had locked Mr Singh’s computer, asked for his keys, taken both his cell phones and given him a letter placing him on administrative leave, she said. “He’s home now on ‘leave’.”

University College Dean, Acting President and board member Brian Chapell was off island last week; UCCI administrators declined to comment; and Board Chairman Conor O’Dea did not return repeated telephone calls.

Minister of Education Hon Alden McLaughlin, however, acknowledged the situation and supported the Board.

“The Board has been through all aspects and all the activities of Hassan Syed,” he said, pointing out that several months had elapsed since the Auditor General’s June revelations, and the simultaneous disappearance of Mr Syed.

“It’s not as though they have done this in a rush,” Mr McLaughlin said. “I will just say this: I support the actions of the board. I know the activities they’ve gone through.”

In a 9 June Legislative Assembly appearance, Mr O’Dea told lawmakers that he had discussed Mr Syed’s “unsubstantiated financial transactions” with Mr Singh, and denied approving a salary advance to the president.

Colleagues of Mr Singh said, however, the advance had been authorised before reaching his office, and that credit card bills incurred by Mr Syed had not crossed his desk.

“Every time Mr Singh asked for the bills, Mr Syed refused to give them to him, but the only person he could report to was Hassan Syed; he could hardly report Syed to Syed,” she said.

While UCCI declined to comment, official sentiment, though sympathetic, was uncompromising towards the Financial Controller.

The board was obliged to act, and Mr Singh, although technically innocent, failed to wave a “red flag” or to compel the board’s attention when he discovered irregularities, said a source familiar with official thinking.

A Financial Controller, he said, is ultimately responsible for the financial well-being of a company.