Ministry probing health of sector spending

THE Health Ministry plans to broaden the scope of ongoing audit to verify spending in the
sector under the 2015-2020 APNU+AFC administration and improve efficiency of some
hospitals perennially the target of public ire, Minister Dr Frank Anthony has disclosed.
Dr Anthony said experts are examining financial records of the Infectious Diseases Sanatorium
at Ocean View on the East Coast corridor and expenditures used by the previous government for
the multimillion-dollar unfinished structure at the Health Ministry’s headquarters at 1 Brickdam
in the capital.
According to Minister Anthony, the incumbent administration will broaden the scope of the
existing financial probe to capture spending for capital and current budgets undertaken by the
David Granger administration.
“In the health sector we are asking for some specific audits and they have been conducted.
Others are in the process of being conducted. The specific audits that we asked for relate to the
Ocean View facility…and secondly the (project at the) MOH head office. We also did ask the
Auditor General to look into the MMU (Materials Monitoring Unit) where we discovered
millions of dollars spent on expired drugs,” the Minister said.
He said the audits target improved efficiency of the health sector to guarantee a better service to
users.
Anthony said his ministry has set up an expert team currently inspecting several regional
hospitals a first-hand view of their daily operations. Over the past two years concerns and
complaints have escalated against several government hospitals including the Linden Hospital
Complex (LHC); New Amsterdam Hospital and the Diamond Diagnostic Centre (DDC).
The ongoing scrutiny, according to the Health Minister is to “review what is happening at the
hospitals, so we can better improve the services.  So, in one case we did that for an investigation
for the New Amsterdam Hospital because of the amount of complaints that we are getting.”

With respect to Regional audits Dr Anthony confirmed the office of the Auditor General will
spearhead these warning that “appropriate action will be taken against those Regions that cannot
properly account” for government monies.
Recently newly-appointed Regional Health Officer (RHO) of Demerara/Mahaica (Region Four)
Dr Avinash Persaud in an exclusive interview with www.aroundtheregions.com raised
suspicions about expenditures used on several schemes in the most populous area.
“What I believe is that they (RHO and team) would have had the support from the REO
(Regional Executive Officer) and…a lot of stuff that were bought were not necessary,” Persaud
reasoned.
While some audits are completed there are others still in progress.
“Answers must be provided for the manner and actions taken by some persons,” Dr Anthony
emphasised.