STEPS may be taken to recover approximately $1.9 million in loans allegedly owed to the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) by the former executive director Lenice Barnett, according to finance minister Audley Shaw.

“There are amounts owed to the SLB in the form of loans some where in the region of $1.9 million that will have to be recovered,” Shaw told journalists at yesterday’s weekly post cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in Kingston. “Those are matters to be determined in the settlement arrangements,” added Shaw.

Barnett was sacked yesterday by the finance minister following a damning audit conducted by the Public Accountability Inspectorate (PAI) division of the ministry of finance.

Shaw disclosed that he accepted the resignation of the board following a meeting held this morning to discuss the findings of the report.

Asked if he had lost confidence in the board because of the findings of the report, the minister said “the general trend of the report would indicate that there should have been greater diligence on the part of the board.”