Gordon Robinson | Inexcusable!

It now seems evident that the rancid, rotten reek emanating from University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) isn’t caused by patients.

UHWI’s administration and Board are slowly but surely being perceived as the cancerous engine and facilitators of that awful smell so pervasive that it may be signalling necrosis. As an accessible, affordable public healthcare provider, UHWI seems to have long since expired and transitioned, like the Phantom, into a Ghost that walks.

The spread of the stench began with the publication of an Auditor General’s (AudGen’s) Report that exposed several examples of accounting practices so improper as to appear deliberate. But, most importantly, AudGen raised four serious red flags that have been flying in the public space ever since.

Let’s look at the national context within which this report was generated. Government budgets from April 2019-March 2024 allocated J$671 billion to the critical sector of public healthcare. Of that allocation, $361 billion (54%) was reserved for public health professionals’ salaries/emoluments. This left only $310 billion (46%) for essentials like hospital equipment, supply chain management, and infrastructure.

$361 billion over five years averages a paltry J$72 billion per year to fund 24 public hospitals; 300 plus health centres and clinics!

In that context, UHWI’s reported abuse of its tax-exempt status to facilitate four private companies’ dodging of import duties/taxes for private profit is a contemptible, callous, calculated cruelty to every Jamaican in need of public healthcare whether at hospital, health centre or clinic.

It’s inexcusable!

That coordinated act of flagrant fiscal ferocity cost the people of Jamaica at least $23 million in lost revenues during that five year period. Instead of going into the public pot to help fund national priorities, including healthcare, revenues were deliberately withheld in pursuance of greed. Additionally, the private businesses were granted contracts with UHWI for the delivery of goods or services using the untaxed imported items to fulfil those contracts. The purchase of imported items from at least two of the private companies cost UHWI an accumulated $10.1 million above the declared imported value.

That’s a double whammy of negative $33 million in the four cases identified by AudGen from a mere sample audit. UHWI imported the goods using its tax-exempt status but they were delivered to private companies who then sold them to UHWI at inflated prices or used them to perform service contracts for UHWI.

My Chinese Chef would exclaim “Wok the Heck?”

Media has focused on one Dennis Gordon, PNP MP for St. Andrew East Central, principal of Jacden Limited (a.k.a. “Private Company #2” in AudGen’s report). Maybe it’s because of the story’s salacious potential to sell advertisements. Maybe it’s too difficult to trace the ownership details of two of the other three. But, for a small fee, investigative journalists could easily obtain details of all four from Companies Office website.

Dennis has been chatty in response to calls for him to resign as MP. Some of his responses are revealing. He told the Observer:

“If the auditor general had fined me, had indicted me for anything, I would have been the first to resign….”

Yawn.

AudGen has no power to fine or indict anyone. She identified accounting irregularities. Police are investigating. If charges are brought and Jacden or Dennis convicted only then will the issue of fines arise. So, if that’s the only reason Dennis won’t resign…..

Then, just like a politician, he mistook the law for a political tool. He ranted;

“I wasn’t directly involved, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to take responsibility for my company’s actions, because I own the company.”

Dennis, old chap, a company can only operate through its officers. It’s not because you own the company. Shareholders aren’t ordinarily liable for a company’s actions. It’s because you OPERATE the company.

“So….I said to Customs, ‘Give me an assessment of what it would’ve cost so I can pay.’ They….said I should pay approximately $10.1 million, which I paid. So, what is the crime?”

AudGen’s report was explicit regarding alleged breaches of the law:

“Customs records showed that items…..were declared as hospital imports, but inventory records confirmed these were not acquired by the hospital and were instead obtained by private entities. This misrepresentation breached the Customs Act…. Section 209(1) of the Act prohibits false declarations on customs documents, with violations subject to fines or prosecution.”

AudGen also reported “UHWI acknowledged that this practice violated public trust and procurement law.” So that’s at least two potential crimes identified. Anyone who aids and abets a crime is as guilty as the offender. So, if UHWI did this all by itself there’s no crime by Jacden or Dennis Gordon who just accidentally benefitted. But, if Jacden/Gordon knowingly received delivery of the goods and resold them to UHWI for profit, that sounds and smells fishy.

If you believe Dennis Gordon/Jacden coughed up $10.1 million to Customs out of corporate benevolence, I’ve a flat piece of Bog Walk property to sell you. In my opinion, everybody, including Dennis, like a bridge player who just butchered the play of a hand, scrambled to shuffle the cards and move on to the next hand AFTER AudGen’s report was tabled.

UHWI Board would’ve seen that report long before tabling. It did the square root of fudge all until the mess exploded publicly. Acting CEO Hosin confirmed the Board was ALSO notified of irregularities by internal oversight personnel but failed to act.

WHY?

On whose toes would the Board have stepped if it acted earlier? All doubt that UHWI and Dennis Gordon/Jacden acted in lockstep to implement this tax-dodging scheme was erased by Gordon himself in a bombshell statement to the Observer:

“My company entered into an arrangement with an entity which approved the use of its facilitation, which is convention, [and] this has been going on for more than 20 years. Having realised that a mistake was made, I could only do the honourable thing by correcting that mistake.”

For TWENTY YEARS, UHWI has been in cahoots with private companies to facilitate tax evasion? Really? Seriously?

THAT’s Dennis’s defence? He’s either applying for 2026’s Dunce Award or is poster boy for radical reform of a system that allows MPs to believe unlawful “convention” is normative.

Also we can scotch the rumour bruited about by Julian Robinson that Jacden only “benefitted” from UHWI’s “misuse”. Dennis Gordon just publicly admitted it was an arrangement with UHWI. Did Jacden enter into that arrangement immediately upon its founding (January 2008)? From how many years of the “arrangement” has it “benefitted”? Does this “repayment” without penalty or interest discharge its full debt? How does this “arrangement” become a “mistake”? Was it a “mistake” when Jacden accepted delivery of goods not for use in or by UHWI but for resale to UHWI at a profit paid for by the same Jamaican taxpayers Dennis represents in Parliament?

The “mistake” hasn’t been corrected. Maybe partial restitution was made. Dennis Gordon should remove himself from Parliament immediately! His actions and excuses provide unanswerable arguments for recall elections.

There are wider issues. AudGen’s five year sample uncovered $23 million revenue losses but that’s probably the tip of the iceberg. How much was actually lost during those five years? How many other companies “benefitted”? If we take Dennis Gordon’s word this has been happening for TWENTY YEARS. Is UHWI sole offender? What’s the cost to taxpayers who spent billions on “healthcare” during that time? How much public revenue was diverted to private pockets via similar schemes? How many public officials abused or neglected their public offices to that end?

Has it been only twenty years?

I haven’t forgotten about UHWI itself. I’m not done with that cesspool masquerading as paragon of public healthcare. Usually, when decades long shenanigans like this come to light, they aren’t the creation or act of one CEO currently being Joan Pantoned. He mightn’t even be a perpetrator. Usually, hospital insiders benefit from these “arrangements”. Administrators arrive; see how di t’ing set; and decide not to Hues Corporation it.

But these are BILLIONS of public funds with which we’re playing the giddy ass. This can’t be allowed to die quietly and be buried beside other nine day wonders. I expect law enforcement agencies including Integrity Commission and Fraud Squad to dig until all the bodies are exhumed and identified.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com