A civil servant suspended on full pay for more than a year is understood to have got her job back — but Government is staying silent on the reason for her lengthy absence from the National Training Board (NTB).

The woman was suspended from the publicly-funded quango on September 21, 2006 along with NTB executive officer Michael Stowe, as part of a civil service probe into the board's finances.

Mr. Stowe was reinstated a year ago after the financial investigation revealed no irregularities. But the female administrative assistant is believed to have only recently returned to work.

The Royal Gazette has repeatedly asked Government why she was suspended, why it has taken so long to resolve the matter and the final outcome of inquiries surrounding her.

The requests have been stonewalled, despite the fact that taxpayers fund the NTB — a committee of Government which offers technical and vocational training to Bermudians on the Island and abroad — to the tune of about $3.6 million a year.

This newspaper's A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign calls for publicly-funded bodies like the NTB to be more transparent and account for how they spend taxpayers' dollars.

We asked the Ministry of Labour, which is responsible for the NTB, for a comment this week on the final outcome of the investigation surrounding the administrative assistant and specifically whether any wrongdoing was uncovered.

We also asked whether the suspended worker ever faced a disciplinary hearing. A spokeswoman replied: "The Ministry has no comment on the matter."

As part of the A Right to Know campaign we asked Mr. Stowe and the Ministry of Labour spokeswoman last month whether the board held its meetings in public, whether it published minutes afterwards and the date of the next meeting.

We also asked for the final outcome of an NTB investigation into the state of the electrical wiring lab at Bermuda College. Mr. Stowe revealed that the investigation was under way last autumn due to industry concerns — though the college angrily rebutted his claim. We never heard back on any of our queries and tried again yesterday without success.

This newspaper was unable to find any details on the NTB's website — www.ntb.bm — about its meetings or who can attend. Our A Right to Know campaign is urging quangos and other organisations paid for by the people to open up their meetings to the public.

Newly appointed NTB Chairman Francis Mussenden, president and chief executive officer of the Bermuda Telephone Company, could not be reached yesterday afternoon.