Where's the money? NERHA head cannot account for excess Petrojam donation

The North East Regional Health Authority (NERHA), chaired by the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Tyrone Robinson, has not been able to account for more than half-million dollars in excess donation received from Petrojam to buy an incubator for the Annotto Bay Hospital, the Integrity Commission has found.

In a report released yesterday, the commission said a request, dated March 30, 2017, and signed by Robinson, was made to Petrojam for $1.2 million to help buy the equipment for the paediatric ward of the St Mary-based institution.

Robinson is a board member of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, the parent company of Petrojam.

The government has initiated steps to transfer the operations of the corporation to the Ministry of Science, Energy & Technology.

The request was submitted to then Petrojam General Manager Floyd Grindley – one of the appointments the Integrity Commission has suggested may have been “strategic” to establish “corruption-enabling mechanisms” at the state-owned entity.  

Grindley recommended the award of the $1.2-million donation which was approved by Harold Malcolm, a board member. 

But Integrity Commission investigators later obtained a document that indicated that NERHA knew the cost of the equipment before it submitted the letter to the oil refinery.

Overpriced

The document, titled 'North East Health Authority Procurement Department – Approval Form', indicated that on March 17, 2017, NERHA received a quotation from Medical Link Limited for the cost of an incubator at $578,290.

In his request, Robinson told Petrojam that the estimated cost for one incubator was $1.2 million.

However, NERHA’s Regional Director, Fabia Lamm, told commission investigators that the incubator was bought at the price quoted by Medical Link, the successful bidder in a tender process used by the health authority.  

The $621,710 which was left over from the Petrojam donation has not been accounted for.

Then Petrojam board member and Port Maria Mayor Richard Creary formally handed over the money on June 30, 2017, during a tour of the hospital attended by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton.

The incubator was delivered to the hospital on October 5, 2017.

Meanwhile, in its push to determine whether there were instances of conflict of interest, nepotism, favouritism, and cronyism in the approval of donations, the commission noted a relationship among Dr Andrew Wheatley, the sacked energy minister who had responsibility for Petrojam, Robinson, and Creary. 

Earlier this month, Robinson signalled that he was interested in being named the JLP’s representative for the St Ann North East constituency, whose member of parliament, Shahine Robinson died in May.

Robinson was embroiled in an Office of the Contractor General (OCG) investigation into a controversial de-bushing project in 2016.

The OCG was scathing in its report of Robinson’s answers to investigators, saying that it was of the “firm opinion that Robinson was disingenuous and sought to, and did, mislead the contractor general”.

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