Details have begun to emerge about the suspicious dealings at the Public Workers Union (PWU) which resulted in Executive Director, Alvin St. John being forced out of his job.

According to a union official, St. John has agreed to repay an estimated $24, 000.00 in bills which the union paid out for services within recent months and was queried by President Madonna Harford.

He said the PWU intends to get its legal representative, Bristol & Bristol to write to St. John to reach an amicable settlement on repayment of the funds. He indicated that the largest bill in question amounted to $7000.00 which was paid to an unknown person or company to replace a part for the union's photo-copying machine.

"We just do not understand what happened. We used to get Bryden & Minors to look after the photo-copying machine. It appears that Alvin by-passed them and brought in somebody else to do the servicing of the machine", he said.

"Well that person charged a lot of money to do what Bryden used to do for us at much less money. So we asked him (St. John) to bring the person and up to now he can't bring the person who did that type of work to show us", he added.

The official said that the union cannot openly accuse St. John of impropriety since bills were made out to persons for work that was supposedly done on PWU machinery and equipment. He spoke of the PWU Executive not impressed with the  explanation given by St. John for spending union funds to upgrade its computer network and system.

He said it appears to the union that there is no noticeable improvement in the speed and efficiency of the computers although large sums were spent by St. John towards this end. In light of the discovery, the PWU President took the strong position that the Executive Director had to quit the job since he was given a reprieve a few years ago for a similar offence.

A union probe then concluded that St. John had used PWU funds to help furnish an apartment for a female companion. He was allowed to remain on the job following an agreement struck for him to repay the monies owed.

The PWU Executive Director was out of the country visiting the United States when the news of his fall from grace at PWU broke but he was spotted in the country earlier in the week. St. John's downfall would also see him lose his place on the important Public Service Commission (PSC), the body responsible for the administration of the civil service in Grenada.