Government House is investigating how three people still on the government payroll were issued lump-sum payments in December for unpaid annual and other leave.
Juel Molloy, chief of staff for Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, said checks should not have been issued to Deandre J. Atwell, Leslie Millin Jr. and Maria C. Benjamin because they have not resigned from government service.
Former Gov. Roy L. Schneider approved checks Dec. 30 for himself and 36 people in his administration — including Atwell, Millin and Benjamin — totaling $383,000 for unpaid leave, but Molloy said some of that leave went beyond the Dec. 30 approval date for the checks.
She said Atwell, a Public Works deputy commissioner, returned her $14,175 leave check, saying she hadn't requested it.
Millin, the Public Works Department's controller, got a check for $2,648 and Benjamin, a Government House housekeeper, got one for $1,201.
Molloy was among those sharply critical of those who took the lump-sum payments when the government is in such dire financial shape that the hospital can't buy oxygen and the police can't afford gasoline for their squad cars.
"It's a matter of misplaced priorities," she said. "Lump sum certainly should not take precedence over milk for school children, gas for police vehicles and medicine for hospitals."
