Wayne Chai Chong said the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) board he led for about a year from December 2022 had identified corrective steps for a litany of problems later flagged by the Auditor General’s Department (AuGD) in a performance audit. However, he said very little was done by the management to implement the recommendations.

Chong, who appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday, highlighted some of the weaknesses and challenges that plagued the hospital at the time.

He said the institution operated at a significant deficit and had fallen behind in its payment of employee and employer statutory deductions. Further, operational and financial procedures and controls were not being observed consistently and the Government’s guidelines for procurement were not always followed.