3 government workers fired, accused of padding time cards

Three provincial government workers have lost their jobs after allegedly padding their time cards. The trio worked in the Ministry of Central Services, which provides services to other provincial employees,from human resources to information technology.

Together they're alleged to have claimed about $24,000 worth of time they didn't work.

That's just one of the losses of public money the government of Saskatchewan has reported for the past three months. The regular, quarterly disclosure is something the province promised to do in the wake of some high-profile thefts which went unreported in the past.

In the latest report of losses, a worker in the Heartland Health Region is said to have falsely identified their date of birth, resulting in overpayments from the employer for disability and pension contributions. The government saidthe region conducted a fraud investigation and is holding back money owing to that worker for now.

Another employeein the Saskatoon Health Region is alleged to have rung up thousands of dollars in personalinternational calls on a work phone. An investigation is ongoing.

One casehad already been made public when the RCMP laid charges against a woman on the Big River First Nation. It has not been disclosed how much the woman allegedly pocketed.

However, according to officials, the woman was a contractor who was looking after the Ministry of Justice's Fines Options Program and was taking money from individuals in exchange for falsifying documents to say they had completed community service, in lieu of payment of fines.

The government was still working on the total amount of fines that itwould have collected, had itbeen paid. The amount was estimated at around $41,000.