Independent accountability structure needed at UHWI amid breaches uncovered by Auditor General – Dawes

Opposition Spokesman on Health and Wellness Dr Alfred Dawes is calling for an independent accountability structure to be implemented at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) as “the public cannot have confidence in internal reviews conducted by the same leadership that presided over the failures”.

His call follows an Auditor General report, which revealed several deficiencies in the hospital's governance, procurement, and contract management processes.

In a statement, Dawes said the Auditor General’s findings, which, among other things, revealed that no procurement documents were located for $521 million in contracts awarded by UHWI, “confirms a long-standing pattern of governance failure within the public health system that has been sanctioned at the highest levels.”

“For more than a year, I have consistently raised concerns about procurement practices across the Ministry of Health and Wellness and its agencies,” Dawes said.

“Each time, those warnings were dismissed, and the Minister assured the country that systems were sound and functioning properly. The Auditor General has now confirmed that this was simply not true.”

Following the revelations in the report, Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton announced that he has appointed a six-member Institutional Review Committee to review and identify gaps and/or weaknesses in the UHWI’s corporate governance and management structures; financial, public procurement, and administrative management systems; and corporate risk-management systems.

The committee is expected to provide recommendations on possible changes or adjustments.

Dawes, however, insists that this measure is insufficient as “a system cannot credibly investigate itself.”

“A committee appointed by the Minister to examine wrongdoing within a system he oversees is like a man on trial choosing his own jury. Jamaicans deserve independent scrutiny, meaningful reform, and accountability that puts patients and public funds first,” he said.

The hospital’s board said it has also reported “specific matters” from the report to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Fraud Squad and the Jamaica Customs Agency, and approved three months’ leave for the chief executive officer of the UHWI, Fitzgerald Mitchell, from his accrued leave entitlement.

It said this decision was taken both to address an extensive leave backlog and to facilitate the independent conduct of the reviews and processes now under way without any perception of influence.

Dawes, in the meantime, argued that procurement breaches in the health ministry are becoming a pattern, despite repeated assurances from the Minister.

He highlighted that the Auditor General has revealed that hundreds of millions of dollars were committed without even the most basic documentation.

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