Flood damage blamed for missing files of multimillion-dollar contracts at UHWI, senior official tells PAC

Flooding in a “holding area” at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UWHI) and breaches of established procurement procedures led to the disappearance of contract files valued at millions of dollars, according to the hospital’s Senior Director, Public Procurement Ainsworth Buckeridge.

Buckeridge told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday that the flooding in the storage area occurred on three separate occasions, but could not provide specific dates when asked.

In a performance audit tabled last year, the Auditor General’s Department revealed that the UHWI failed to provide procurement documentation for 51 contracts valued at more than $521 million to auditors.

The absence of key documents made it impossible to determine whether the contracts met the required standards of transparency, accountability, and value for money.

However, since the tabling of the report, 28 contract files, valued at $268 million, have been found, which means that contract 22 files, valued at $267 million, are still missing.

Buckeridge stated that the standard operating procedure is that each document in a procurement activity is filed in a file folder and then placed in a hard binder.

It is then transferred to a storage area where it can be retrieved.

But he stated that this procedure was not being followed, “hence the reason why these files could not be located”.

Pressed by PAC chairman Julian Robinson about where the documents would have been stored, Buckeridge replied, “Those files should have been in a storage area, and my understanding is that that area was flooded at least twice or three times based on heavy rainfall…that is my understanding.”

Robinson, however, expressed his disbelief.

“We could never accept that 50 per cent of documents, valued at $280 million, can’t be found because of flooding?”

But he was left dumbfounded when the hospital’s Chief Audit Executive, Dwight McLeish, stated that filing cabinets were only recently implemented after previous internal reviews of the procurement section also revealed that documentation had not been institutionalised.

“You are saying people put in place filing cabinets, mi have that a my yard eno, mi have that a my yard. Yuh cya tell mi dat the University Hospital of the West Indies that spend billions of taxpayers' money, just put in place filing cabinets?” Robinson quizzed.

Probed as to what existed before the filing cabinets were in place, McLeish reinforced that it was a recommendation from the internal audit committee.

But Robinson was not satisfied with the response.

“First wi hear rain fall, and wet up some files.. But how can so many files be missing? Somebody tek dem outta di hospital and go somewhere with them?” he asked.

“People a guh think a joke business this eno. People really go think is a joke ting dat, that we can be saying in 2026, that an institution that spends billions of dollars should just be putting in filing cabinets and file jackets? And you’re storing these in a holding area that floods out three times and nobody is held accountable?,” he continued.

Robinson requested that a formal report on the issue be done and brought back to the committee.

- Sashana Small

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