The announcement of Raymonde Dill's suspension from the Bermuda Housing Corporation yesterday is the latest in a string of job-related controversies for the 51-year-old general manager.

BHC is now under investigation following allegations that corruption and kickbacks are rife within the Government quango.

Mr. Dill was appointed to his post at BHC in October 1999 following the retirement of Edwin Cowen.

At the time, he was also serving as chairman of the Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) and had once been once touted as a replacement for former King Edward VII Memorial Hospital CEO Sheila Manderson.

However, Mr. Dill was shuffled out of the BHB appointment in January 2001, following the out of court settlement of a former hospital executive's wrongful dismissal suit the previous summer.

BHB paid $75,000 plus legal costs to ousted hospital facilities manager Neil Crane in the summer of 2000 amid a flurry of controversy over his forced resignation. Insiders at the hospital branded Mr. Dill `power hungry' and called him a `little dictator', while suggesting Mr. Crane had been made a scapegoat for spiralling building costs at the hospital which were beyond his control, when the controversy was reported in 1999.

Mr. Crane was told at a meeting with two BHB representatives on October 26, 1999 that he was to resign or his contract would be terminated immediately. Mr. Crane had 20 years experience in hospital engineering and had been specifically headhunted to come to Bermuda.

He sued the BHB and, while the matter was settled out of court, his lawyer Juliana Jack called the $75,000 settlement `a full and thorough vindication' of her client's position, according to The Royal Gazette reports at the time. Acting as BHB chairman, however, Mr. Dill said at the time the settlement was made in order that the BHB resume full attention to the delivery of health care.

"The board finally agreed that in the interests of all parties, notwithstanding there are unresolved issues which could not be resolved, the board agreed to settle out of court," Mr. Dill told The Royal Gazette.

Mr. Dill was appointed to the BHB chair in January 1999.

Shortly after that appointment, in a surprise move, he resigned from an important position at the Bank of Bermuda amid allegations that he mistreated a secretary. At the time of his resignation from the bank, Mr. Dill had risen to the position of vice president of the group services division.

Mr. Dill denied his resignation was related to the secretary's internal bank complaint against him for harassment and assault, however. "My leadership and management style didn't seem to fit with that of the bank," he told The Royal Gazette at the time.

Mr. Dill's admitted there had been an altercation with his secretary but denied it was an assault. He said he'd been dissatisfied with her work and the situation had deteriorated.

"In an environment like that, there clearly were harsh words but there was no physical abuse," he said at the time. However, his resignation followed just three weeks after the alleged incident where Mr. Dill was said to have put his hands on the woman, sworn at her and ordered her to answer the phones. Mr. Dill had risen through the ranks at Bank of Bermuda after joining in 1990 when he returned to the Island after many years abroad. A chartered accountant, Mr. Dill previously worked the international accounting firm Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and with the Bahamas Development Bank. He spent much of his career based out of London before returning to the Island in 1981.