Government Members of Parliament (MPs) Zavia Mayne and Heroy Clarke turned Tuesday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting into a courtroom-style grilling as they fiercely questioned former University Hospital of the West Indies Board Chairman Wayne Chai Chong over the hospital’s controversial overseas CEO recruitment process.

They also questioned whether the dissolved board had fully approved key aspects of the appointment process, including payment of travel expenses for the overseas candidate, while revisiting the bitter fallout and governance tensions that ultimately ended with the board’s dissolution.

The heated exchanges reopened one of the most controversial chapters in the recent history of the UHWI — the failed search for a permanent chief executive officer which preceded the collapse of the former board in late 2023 and sparked accusations of ministerial interference, governance breakdown, and dysfunction within the institution.