Current, former UHWI senior officials summoned to PAC

After several failed attempts to unearth who was at the centre of a myriad procurement breaches, missing contract documents and the misuse of the University Hospital of the West Indies’ (UHWI) tax-exempt status, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has summoned the institution’s former principals.

At a meeting of the PAC yesterday in Gordon House, a request from Chairman Julian Robinson was approved for the substantive CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell, former CEO Kevin Allen, and ex-board chairman Wayne Chai Chong to be summoned to the next meeting of the committee later this month.

There is no evidence to signal that any of the former officials to be summoned is involved in wrongdoing.

Despite strenuous attempts by committee members to elicit pivotal information in relation to several breaches flagged by the auditor general in her January 2026 performance audit of the hospital, the acting CEO Eric Hosin, who has recently taken the reigns at the institution, has been unable to provide answers to some of the queries.

Both Hosin and the acting Permanent Secretary Errol Greene have appeared before the committee twice to field questions on serious concerns highlighted by the auditor general at the hospital.

For example, committee member Juliet Cuthbert Flynn wanted to know whether it was the UHWI that approached the four private companies which benefitted from the hospital’s tax exempt status.

Responding, Hosin said he did not know whether it was the hospital which approached the companies or the other way around. However, he made it clear that there was no policy or convention that allowed the UHWI to breach Jamaica Customs or government guidelines.

At yesterday’s meeting, Heroy Clarke, a committee member, requested that a representative from Jamaica Customs be also invited to the next meeting to shed light on the UHWI’s misuse of its tax exempt status.

Clarke wanted clarity on how JACDEN, one of four companies that benefitted, managed to pay back some $10 million in taxes to Jamaica Customs when it was the hospital that facilitated the tax exemption.

Hosin said he could not provide a response to that question.

There have been calls for the head of JACDEN, opposition Member of Parliament Dennis Gordon, to resign in the wake of the findings of the auditor general.

REJECTED ALLEGATIONS

Gordon has since rejected allegations of misconduct, saying his company repaid funds that should have been paid for the importation of office furniture and more than a dozen dialysis machines in 2024.

After the publication of the auditor general’s damning report on the operations of the hospital, its CEO, Mitchell, went on three months’ leave to facilitate independent investigations.

Mitchell, a former senior director of operations at the UHWI, was appointed CEO in 2024 after acting in the role for two years. A hospital statement at the time said he had been with the institution for more than 27 years.

Mitchell replaced Kevin Allen, a former senior director of finance, who was first appointed to act as CEO in 2015.

Chai Chong was appointed chairman in November 2022 but resigned in December 2023. Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton later dissolved the board and appointed businessman Patrick Hylton as chairman. The University of the West Indies also appoints members to the board.

Tufton cited “a clash of personalities and dysfunctionality” among reasons for the move.

Chai Chong insisted the disagreements were over his board’s attempt at reform, including hiring a top-tier professional from abroad as CEO, as part of an effort to “improve the governance, management and operational efficiency of the institution”.

He also said Tufton overruled a board decision to replace Mitchell as acting CEO with another senior official.

“This was a brave board, with members who were willing to tackle the issues which have for years been the source of the decline of the UHWI,” he said in a statement highlighting a series of concerns.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com