Lawson may stay home 'til 2011
Published:Wednesday | September 15, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
National Health Fund (NHF) chief executive officer Hugh Lawson may be forced to stay home for the remaining months of the year because the already-stretched Auditor General's Department may not be able to conduct the requested audit before year-end.
Acting Auditor General Maxine Hutchinson told The Gleaner that a new audit of the NHF is not what is needed, but rather the will to implement recommendations that were made by her department in its 2008/2009 annual report after the financial affairs of the entity were the subject of a special audit.
"The audit will be done but not immediately because we are having a problem with resources," she said last week.
"I thought that we did not need to go immediately because we made specific recommendations in relation to credit cards and control weaknesses that needed to be addressed," said Hutchinson, who is sitting in for Pamela Monroe Ellis, who is on leave.
Area of concern
In the department's 2008/2009 annual report, the auditor general noted, as an area of concern, that "credit card transactions totalling $123,823 and US$1,220 were not considered appropriate charges to the NHF".
The report also said that "an over-limit fee of $401 charged by the bank should have been borne by the cardholder instead of the Fund".
Hutchinson said the Fund's failure to implement the recommendations is symptomatic of a large ailment afflicting a number of government entities that are tardy with the implementation of recommendations made by the department. However, she also said there are state entities that are very responsive to the recommendations.
A part of the department's core mission is to 'ensure that public sector financial transactions comply with the wishes of Parliament, relevant laws and regulations and are conducted with due regard to the avoidance of fraud, waste and extravagance'.
Last month, Rudyard Spencer, Minister of Health, requested the intervention of the auditor general and sent Lawson on leave, pending the outcome of a probe into questionable credit card transactions.
Internal audit
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.
But, Lawson's wait to know his fate may be lengthy, as the acting Auditor General said she could not put a timeline on when the audit would eventually be carried out by her department. Hutchinson said she could not even commit to having the probe done before the end of the year. "We are very stretched at the moment," she emphasised.
The internal audit found that over several months, cash advances were made amounting to $380,378.86 using the credit card assigned to Lawson. When contacted, Lawson said he cleared up the arrears and was not aware that he might be out of office for such a long time.