NHF CEO suspended
Published:Sunday | August 15, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Clarification
In The Sunday Gleaner of August 15, 2010, under the heading, NHF CEO suspended, it was reported, inter alia, that a Gleaner exclusive in 2008 revealed that the NHT was being tapped to foot private security bills for Mr Rae Barrett in his capacity as deputy chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).Investigations conducted by The Gleaner for the 2008 exclusive referred to above and previously published in the said exclusive had in fact revealed that the JUTC was also supposed to be involved in the payment of the cost of security services for Mr Barrett and for the NHF offices, and that the NHF had, in fact, billed the JUTC, at the time, close to $400,000 to recover money already spent by the fund for security services. The Gleaner regrets any confusion that may have been occasioned
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Another head of a state entity is facing probing questions about questionable financial transactions at the organisation.
Less than one week after head of the Students' Loan Bureau, Lenice Barnett, was fired, Hugh Lawson, the chief executive officer of the National Health Fund (NHF), has been sent on leave pending the outcome of a probe at that entity.
Minister of Health, Rudyard Spencer, ordered Lawson on leave starting tomorrow, and has written to the auditor general requesting that an audit be done at the NHF.
According to Spencer, the decisions were made in light of the findings of an internal audit carried out by the Ministry of Health which indicated that there had been inappropriate use of a government credit card issued to Lawson.
Spencer said the decision was made after a meeting with the board of the NHF on Friday.
The extraordinary meeting was called to discuss the findings of the initial audit carried out by a team from the health ministry.
"I have decided to ask the auditor general to conduct a further probe to determine whether there are any other breaches," Spencer said.
He said the internal audit found that over several months, cash advances were made amounting to $380,378.86 using the credit card assigned to Lawson.
Spencer said the NHF had recovered $278,002.44 of that money, as Lawson had been making payments on the account each month.
Payment plan
The health minister said the audit team found that the Government had not incurred any expenses as a result of the breach, and that Lawson had indicated that he would be covering the balance last Friday.
Up to yesterday, The Sunday Gleaner was unable to determine if the cheque had been delivered.
"Instructions were issued for the credit card to be terminated with immediate effect, and this has already been done," Spencer said.
He said he had also instructed the board of the NHF to strengthen the monitoring and control mechanisms in respect of the use of credit cards.
Spencer is scheduled to meet with members of the NHF Board, senior management, and supervisory employees on Friday.
The Sunday Gleaner had previously learnt that allegations of questionable spending at the NHF led Spencer to order a probe into the use of the entity's state-issued credit cards.
The probe focused on Lawson, who has led the NHF since September 2009.
When contacted last Friday, Lawson admitted to The Sunday Gleaner that some transactions he made had been examined by the audit team.
At that time, Lawson said he was confident that the findings detailed in the report would make it "quite clear" that there was "no fraud, or nothing of that nature".
However, Lawson conceded that the audit findings would raise other questions.
"Some questionable things about regulation, but there is no breach (and) there is no misappropriation of funds. But I think there is a new regulation out, so there may be questions about that," he said.
Previous claims
This is not the first time claims of controversial spending have rocked the NHF.
In October 2008, Rae Barrett, the then CEO of the NHF, was sacked for what Spencer labelled as several breaches of contract.
After Barrett's dismissal, a Gleaner exclusive revealed that the NHF was being tapped to foot private-security bills for Barrett in his capacity as deputy chairman of the Jamaican Urban Transit Company (JUTC).
The cash-strapped bus company took the decision to provide private security for Barrett after its chairman, Douglas Chambers, was murdered on the job. The JUTC then relied on the inflows at NHF to pay the bill.
Spencer described the arrangement between the NHF and the JUTC as "untidy", and told The Sunday Gleaner that the deal was "an unhealthy arrangement that should not have happened".
Clarification
In The Sunday Gleaner of August 15, 2010, under the heading, NHF CEO suspended, it was reported, inter alia, that a Gleaner exclusive in 2008 revealed that the NHT was being tapped to foot private security bills for Mr Rae Barrett in his capacity as deputy chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).Investigations conducted by The Gleaner for the 2008 exclusive referred to above and previously published in the said exclusive had in fact revealed that the JUTC was also supposed to be involved in the payment of the cost of security services for Mr Barrett and for the NHF offices, and that the NHF had, in fact, billed the JUTC, at the time, close to $400,000 to recover money already spent by the fund for security services. The Gleaner regrets any confusion that may have been occasioned