PAC slams ‘madness’ as UHWI pays big for delayed, rejected reports

The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) paid Strategic Alignment Limited US$92,000 (J$14.5 million) to create a strategic transformation plan, but rejected the draft without explaining why the board did not approve it.

At the same time another consulting firm, William Pragmatic Limited, which received nearly US$93,000, representing 50 per cent of the cost to produce an operation and turnaround plan for the UHWI, only delivered a draft document nearly two years after collecting the down payment.

It was disclosed at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week that the plan should have been produced within a four-month period ending December 2024.

Members of PAC were left stunned when acting UHWI CEO Eric Hosin disclosed that the draft operation and turnaround plan was only delivered in February this year, one month after Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis flagged the missing report from William Pragmatic Limited.

PAC Chairman Julian Robinson lamented the tardiness of the consulting firm.

“That is crazy, that you could pay 50 per cent almost two years [ago] and only because the auditor general goes in that he produces that report after getting 50 per cent of his money. Madness that,” Robinson declared.

Hosin answered in the affirmative.

Hosin was installed earlier this year following the damning revelations flowing from the auditor general’s report, which was tabled in Parliament in January.

The performance audit revealed that the hospital failed to provide any approved strategic plans for the last six years even though it paid US$186,600 (approximately J$30 million) to two consultants for strategic and operational reviews in 2022 and 2024.

Hosin told the committee that the contract to produce the operation and turnaround plan was needed to address concerns about the viability of the hospital “from a financial standpoint because at this moment, it is not in the best of shape”.

He also told the committee that when the auditor general was conducting her audit, the hospital could not find the signed contract with this firm. However, he told the PAC last week that the signed contract was subsequently located and submitted to the auditor general.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com