In October of last year, reports surfaced of a massive case of embezzlement at the Southern Regional Hospital. Initial reports said that as much as $300,000 thousand dollars were misappropriated from the hospital's Maternal and Child Health account. The Administrator Nasley Somerville was immediately placed on suspension - and she remains on that tonight, awaiting a hearing form the public services commission.
The commission will rely heavily on the completed report from the Auditor General. The 22 page document was submitted a month ago, and tonight, 7News has been leaked a rough copy of 15 of those pages. It paints a picture of massive fraud that went unchecked because of a total absence of internal controls at the Ministry of Health. Here now are the report's major findings.
Jules Vasquez reporting
"Confidential" - the Audit Report was submitted on April 11th, subject: the suspected embezzlement of 366,468.88 from the Maternal Child Health account at the Southern Regional Hospital by Administrator Nasley Somerville.
The report shows that over a 45 month period from January 2010 to September 2013, the abuses were multiple and serial while oversight from the ministry was nil - leaving the public accounts with a gaping hole: 189 cheques missing.
But, while the hospital has no record of them, the Auditor General got copies of 181 cashed cheques from the Belize Bank in Dangriga - the report describes them as forged - since they were not issued with the requisite authority.
And forgeries because the alleged co-signator on all the cheques is administrative assistant Barbara Nicholas who says she had no knowledge of any of them - and in fact was on leave when some of them were signed.
Somervile purportedly cashed 49 checks valued at 118 thousand dollars which were made out to cash, deposited 10 checks valued at 15 thousand dollars and made out in her name directly to her Credit Union account, made 71 checks payable to other persons in the amount of $145,000 thousand dollars - the proceeds of which the FIU says ended up in her account, bought twenty thousand dollars' worth of items with 21 checks, and deposited five cheques valued at $11,000 thousand dollars into the account of a colleague, Dr Francis Morey. The Auditor General notes that Dr, Morey admitted that he received the cheques as deposits to his personal bank account.
He says it was a fifteen thousand dollar loan from Somerville which he would pay back, but directly to her account. He told the Auditor General he thought the funds were from her personal account not the Southern Regional.
The Auditor General recommends that the ministry get back the money directly from him since he is still employed with the Ministry.
But the Auditor General found that it was being used much like a personal account - she purportedly used a cheque from the account to buy two ladies Pulsar watches and a picture frame from Brodies for $747 dollars.
The Auditor General found that quite incredibly she then submitted a reimbursement claim form for using the original invoice linked to a cheque from the maternal child health account.
These purchases from Brodies, Mirab and Hofius were for a thousand dollar Seiko watch, perfumes, kitchen and bathroom items, and various household items a total of $7580 dollars of house fixtures - which does make one wonder - when she posts pictures like this on facebook.
The auditor General also found that the account was used to purchase a gas range from Mirab.
So how did this all go on for so long? Well, no one checked on the account - the bank statements never reached back to the hospital because the Bank says Somerville picked them up directly.
And while the report fingers her as the culprit - It makes it clear that ultimate responsibility rests to quote, "make sure that a proper system of accounting IS DEVISED...IN THIS CASE the basic principles of internal controls were not complied with which provided an opportunity for the embezzlement scheme to go undetected for approximately two years costing the government $366,468.88"
Somerville was supposed to appear before the Public Services Commission today but that was postponed because the commission was relying on the initial report, and not the completed one we just laid out for you. They are now updating their deliberations. When asked about 3 cheques bearing what appeared clearly to be her handwriting, Somerville told Audit Department investigators that she does not recall going to the bank and cashing any checks.
The police have been investigating since last year, but have made no arrest.
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