A man who worked with his girlfriend to rip off the Government of Bermuda was never qualified for his position in the Accountant General's Department.

Harrison Isaac Jr claimed he was awaiting a licence as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) when he applied for his Management Accountant's position in 2000. The licence never materialised — but it was only discovered that he was unqualified after he abused his position to steal $2 million of taxpayers' money.

Isaac eventually pleaded guilty to fraud charges and was jailed for four-and-a-half years last August by a court in New York City.

After Monday's guilty verdict in the New York City fraud trial of his co-conspirator Teketa Thompkins, who received and laundered the stolen money, The Royal Gazette can reveal how Isaac slipped through the net.

It is mandatory for anyone applying to be a Management Accountant in the Accountant General's Department to have a CPA or equivalent qualification before being put in charge of millions.

Of the Isaac situation, Accountant General Joyce Hayward told The Royal Gazette: "On his personnel file he said he had recently passed the exam and his licence was pending board approval.

"We would usually ask for a certificate and depending on the entity, we could either call or ask for copies of the certificates that we could see the red seal on."

But when the fraud scandal broke and Mrs. Hayward called the professional board Isaac listed in Georgia, it had no record of him being qualified or having sat the relevant exam. The American Institute of Public Accountants told Mrs Hayward it did not have him as a member either.

"With this case, I think what happened (was) because it was pending board approval they were waiting to get his board certificate and we never got it. He was hired on the basis of CPA approval and they were waiting for it and it never came through. It was a surprise for us when I called and discovered Georgia didn't have a record," she said.

Isaac, who was paid $80,000-a-year as a Management Accountant, initially tried to evade questions in court about this, insisting to Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Goldin "I am a qualified accountant".

He claimed he sat his exams in Atlanta, Georgia.

But he admitted in answer to further questions that he had not been certified as a CPA in Georgia or anywhere else. Asked if he had ever applied, he said: "Yes, in Georgia. They turned me down because they didn't recognise the credit hours."

Mrs. Hayward — who was not Accountant General when Isaac was taken on — was unable to say if steps were ever taken to chase up his missing documentation. But she said checks have been tightened up since the Isaac case. All Management Accountants are now required to show annually that they meet qualification requirements, she said.

Asked about the impact of the Isaac scandal on her Department, Mrs. Hayward said: "Persons of course had trust in him, and with all of the publicity it has put a disparaging light on our staff and accountants who work hard and do a good job. It's made us look like we don't know what we are doing."

The Accountant General's Department has previously come under fire from Auditor General Larry Dennis, who said weak financial controls allowed Isaac and Thompkins to get away with the enormous fraud. However, Mrs Hayward said staff were working very hard on reconciling (i.e. checking) the accounts at the time of the crime. Regarding the present situation, she added: "We are trying very hard to put things in place to make sure that the proper controls and policies and procedures are in place."

Commenting on the fact that the unqualified Isaac slipped through the net, Shadow Finance Minister Patricia Gordon Pamplin said: "It is certain that somebody dropped the ball. It is inexcusable that a position that requires such a high degree of trust would be filled by an unqualified candidate when the status of qualification is so easy to verify. The attitude of acceptance of information as presented, without doing any substantive background checks, is careless.

"While it seems — after the fact — that verification steps are being taken, how much more public money needs to be misappropriated before the standard of accountability is raised?"

The Accountant General's Department falls under the Ministry of Finance. Minister Paula Cox was invited to comment, but Financial Secretary Donald Scott responded on her behalf: "This is a personnel matter and therefore is not within the remit of the Minister."

How Isaac slipped through the net