A forensic audit is to be carried out into financial irregularities which have been uncovered at the Bellevue Hospital in Kingston.

The discrepancies, which were the substance of much discussion at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in Kingston yesterday, were highlighted in the 2004/05, 2005/06 and 2006/07 reports of the auditor-general.

It was discovered, among other things, that the salaries account of the psychiatric care facility had been defrauded $15.243 million between 1999 and 2003 by a bank employee and that there had been several breaches of the guidelines for the procurement of goods and services for which millions were paid over.

Addressing the swindled funds, permanent secretary to the health ministry, which has oversight responsibility for the psychiatric care facility, Dr Grace Allen-Young, said so far the bank has made restitution of $13.1 million, leaving a balance of $2.062 million.

She said the balance was, however, still in dispute as the hospital had made a $2-million claim on the bank to cover work done to gather the data because the bank had been unable to find all the information. She said the bank had paid over the $2-million but not the balance of $2.062 million on the original amount which was defrauded.
"That is still in dispute," she said.

But PAC chair Dr Omar Davies, who said he was somewhat 'alarmed' by the situation, said it was clear that the hospital was a sitting duck for unscrupulous persons.

"The financial management of these places could do with some strengthening," said Davies. "These things should never reach the stage where it is the auditor-general who has to bring them to your attention. Seems to me you should be in a position to know.

"I am slightly alarmed that we are talking about $2 million and we don't know where it is. It would seem to me that somebody should essentially have picked that up and provided you with that information," Davies said.
"Somebody in the bank just realised that nobody was keeping check and I suspect they just milked the account each month," Davies theorised.

He suggested that the ministry seek to recover interest on the amount which had been defrauded over the period.

"It should seem to me that centrally somebody at your level should meet with the bank and say this was the interest rate over the period," said Davies. "This can't be left just like that; a bank can't just defraud you and give you a money and say hold that. One thing you can be certain, if it were the other way around there would have been some serious charges."
PAC member Dr Morais Guy, however, was critical of the monitoring being done by the health ministry.

"It would seem a little more than good news that Bellevue was able to be defrauded $15 million over three years and it didn't take until after three or four years to find out this was so, suggesting that the institution was awash with funds, but what oversight was being given to that institution by the Ministry of Health?" he queried.

Dr Allen-Young, responding to the concerns, said what had become clear was that "the ministry will have to work with Bellevue much more closely".