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Today was day 2 of the public hearings into alleged corrupt practices at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. This morning Deputy Auditor General Wayne Simon continued his testimony which consisted of reading through all 111 pages of the special audit report on the KHMH. Today’s pages revealed more instances of conflict of interests where doctors employed at the hospital were supplying pharmaceuticals. Simon also lamented about missing receipt books, missing reports, and bank deposit books. So what does it all add up to? That’s what we asked Wayne Simon following his testimony.

Wayne Simon, Deputy Auditor General
“There were making a lot of purchases on the retail market although the records reflected that the Quickbooks balances, the software used by the KHMH and the BHI system used by CMS, they had available balances and if there were available balances in those systems, why would you go and make purchases on the retail market at higher prices.

It surely is a irregularity because when you go and make purchases at high prices it costs the government of Belize a considerable amount of funds. You could have saved if you got it from CMS.”

Keith Swift,
“Did anything really bothered you as you went through the report, what really stood out to you?”

Wayne Simon,
“Well there was allegation concerning purchases from the retail market at high prices and the evidence in the report shows that.”

And although practices at the KHMH may have been improper, Simon told us it is not for him to decide if they were illegal.

Wayne Simon,
“We did not make recommendations because that is the job of the Commission of Inquiry, they will go through the report and they call up witnesses and determine whether or not what we write in the report was accurate as against what those witnesses are saying. We did a thorough job and we got our information from the record and so we stand by what we have in there.”

Keith Swift,
“Is there any evidence to suggest that this was systematic corruption?”

Wayne Simon,
“No we did not find evidence of that, we just reviewed the records and our findings are written in the report concerning those records. To say well there was corruption between contractors and officers within the place, we didn’t find any evidence to support that.”

Keith Swift,
“Based on your audit, do you think anyone should be held culpable, criminally charged?”

Wayne Simon,
“Well we are auditors, we are not legally minded people. That is why our report was submitted to the Chairman Justice Lucas who is a legal mind and he should decide whether or not crimes were committed.”

The hearings resume on Monday when Laurel Grant, the former acting Director of the KHMH will be called. She will be followed by Dr. Peter Allen, the CEO in the Ministry of Health. His testimony is anticipated because there were numerous instances in which he overruled the decision of the tendering committee and chose to purchase cheaper generic drugs which in some instances were inferior.