A civil servant suspended from a Government quango more than a year ago amid an investigation into alleged financial irregularities is still receiving full pay.

The female administrative assistant, believed to earn more than $60,000 a year, has never had a disciplinary hearing or been told she faces any charges since her suspension from the National Training Board (NTB) on September 21, 2006.

The Royal Gazette has been asking Government about her position and the outcome of the investigation relating to her for months but has not had a response since January 30, when we were told the inquiry was still ongoing.

The woman, thought to be in her 40s, was suspended along with NTB executive officer Michael Stowe as part of a civil service probe into the board's finances.

Mr. Stowe was reinstated on February 27 this year.

Ministry of Labour Permanent Secretary Robert Horton said at the time that a thorough four-month investigation into the financial affairs of the NTB — a publicly-funded committee of Government which offers technical and vocational training to Bermudians on the Island and abroad — had revealed no financial irregularities.

Despite this, the administrative assistant has never been allowed to return to work and is understood to be at a loss as to the reason she was suspended.

A source told this newspaper: "She wants to be back. She has asked to go back to work and they will not entertain it. She is totally in the dark. It is a waste of taxpayers' money. In this case, the taxpayers are paying for someone to work who wants to work but the Government won't allow it."

Another source described the situation as "total nonsense" and highly unusual within the civil service. They said it was normal for a civil servant facing a serious investigation to go onto reduced pay pending any substantial charges.

"It boggles the mind how a person could be on full pay for 14 months with an investigation which appears to have gone nowhere," said the source. "It's not very pleasant and the irony of it is that if the investigation is for financial matters the Government for 14 months has wasted an entire salary.

"This thing is just totally incomprehensible. It's a waste of money and I think the fact that the public is not being advised and informed about the process is wrong. It just means a person is left in limbo."

The Ministry of Labour again failed to respond to a request for comment.