LENICE Barnett has been sacked as executive director of the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB), ending a 16-year tenure with the often maligned public agency.

The Ministry of Finance announced yesterday that Barnett’s contract had been terminated with immediate effect, against the background of an audit carried out on the agency by the Public Accountability Inspectorate Division of the ministry.

A temporary manager will be put in place today until a new executive director is appointed, said the ministry in a release which noted that Finance Minister Audley Shaw met with the chairman of the SLB board yesterday and will meet with the entire board this morning.

The Government did not provide details of the audit report, but state minister in the Ministry of Finance Arthur Williams described it as “damning” and added that a more detailed statement concerning the matter will be issued following today’s meeting with the SLB board.

Barnett could not be reached for comment last night, and an effort to contact her through her assistant was unsuccessful, as her cellphone rang without answer. However, a highly placed source told the Observer that among the things the audit uncovered was “an unsatisfactory work environment” at the SLB and an attrition rate of just under 50 of 76 employees since 2007.

“The facts are that the Public Accountability Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Finance and Public Service carried out an audit of the Students’ Loan Bureau and delivered a report to minister of finance, the Hon Audley Shaw, on Monday, July 26, 2010, the same day the minister left the island on Government business,” said Williams in a press release.

Yesterday, speculation was rife that the executive director was booted for comments she made at the final sitting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) meeting on July 28.

Barnett told the meeting that she strongly believed that tertiary students would have to pay a 100 per cent increase in fees in the 2011-2012 school year, based on the current financial position of the SLB, plus the demand for more money from more students,

She also expressed the view that the 100 per cent increase would be a direct result of Government lowering their contribution to tertiary level education from the current 80 per cent to 60 per cent.

But Education Minister Andrew Holness contradicted Barnett at a hastily called press conference the following day and denied her projections. He said while an increase was to be expected, it was not going to be sudden, sharp increases.

Williams yesterday denied that Barnett’s dismissal had anything to do with her comments two weeks ago and lashed out at Opposition spokesman on education Basil Waite for making such an accusation.

Williams, in the press release, said Waite made a “careless and reckless rush to issuing a press release without first ascertaining the facts” and added that “…this is indicative of the barefaced and crass political opportunism which has now become the hallmark of the Opposition spokesman and his colleagues”.

Waite had earlier issued a press release saying that the Opposition was alarmed at the Government’s sudden dismissal of the long-serving executive director, weeks before the beginning of the new school year. He said Barnett’s dismissal raised a number of questions, particularly in light of her recent estimation that given the circumstances within the education sector, tertiary fees could be doubled within the next two years. And he accused the Government of attempting to “muzzle persons” who it believes have spoken ‘out of turn’ in making professional observations.

“The Opposition is demanding that the Minister clarify and provide precise reasons for Mrs Barnett’s dismissal as well as the timing of her dismissal, just weeks before the beginning of the new semester. The nation also needs the assurance that everything will be in place for students to access the resources at the SLB this semester,” said Waite.

Senior government sources told the Observer yesterday that the SLB was in a precarious financial position and without serious capital injection “would run into serious problems.”