$40B HOLE The financial standing of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) is now under scrutiny following revelations yesterday that the teaching institution has a ballooning tax debt amounting to tens of billions of dollars. Acting chief executive officer of the UHWI, Eric Hosin, told members of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday that the hospital owed Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) more than $40 billion in taxes. He said $18 billion of this amount is the principal sum owed and the balance represents interest and penalties.
UHWI tax debt raises questions about ministry’s oversight Economist Keenan Falconer says the more than $40 billion in tax, interest, penalties and surcharges for which the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) is liable represents approximately 15 per cent of the total stock of arrears due to Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ). At the same time, Damion Gordon, lecturer in the Department of Government at The University of the West Indies (UWI), says the tax liability issue at the UHWI points to broader concerns about oversight and accountability at the level of hospital administration, also the parent ministry.
Current, former UHWI senior officials summoned to PAC After several failed attempts to unearth who was at the centre of a myriad procurement breaches, missing contract documents and the misuse of the University Hospital of the West Indies’ (UHWI) tax-exempt status, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has summoned the institution’s former principals. At a meeting of the PAC yesterday in Gordon House, a request from Chairman Julian Robinson was approved for the substantive CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell, former CEO Kevin Allen, and ex-board chairman Wayne Chai Chong to be summoned to the next meeting of the committee later this month.
Storm victim baffled by ROOFS grant mix-up Angella Allen was filled with excitement when she learnt during a ceremony in February that she was one of several persons selected for a $500,000 grant under a special Government-funded initiative, the Restoration of Owner or Occupant Family Shelters (ROOFS) programme. The initiative, which falls under the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), is a $10-billion programme to repair homes that were damaged by Melissa, the powerful Category 5 hurricane that made landfall in Jamaica last October.
Bernard Lodge onion glut leaves farmers with millions in losses Onion farmers in Bernard Lodge, St Catherine are facing millions of dollars in losses as a glut in local production collides with continued imports, leaving acres of mature crops at risk of spoilage. More than 15 farmers in the area are now under pressure to slash prices in a bid to recover costs, even as they call for stronger protection for local agriculture.
Kingston mayor lashes ORA Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby has criticised the Government’s One Road Authority (ORA) initiative, arguing that it does not address the problem of inadequate funding for road maintenance. Cabinet recently approved a policy framework for the ORA, which is mandated to regulate road performance and standards across the island. The approval paves the way for a two-phased implementation of the ORA, which will operate under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development.
PNP councillor joins call for children’s hospital in west to be named after Simpson Miller WESTERN BUREAU: Kerry Thomas, the councillor for the Mt Salem division in the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), has served notice on the corporation that he will be tabling a resolution to have the new Western Children and Adolescent Hospital, in Montego Bay, named in honour of former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.
13-Y-O CRITICAL An eighth-grade student has been hospitalised with life-threatening injuries to his kidney and intestine after he was reportedly shot by a policeman during an incident his family claim was unprovoked. The 13-year-old Cedric Titus High student was on the rooftop of a bar adjoining his home in Rio Bueno, Trelawny, on Sunday night, when a uniformed cop inside the venue fired a single bullet that struck him, according to a family member.
Probe deepens after Carnival night erupts in gunfire Investigators probing Sunday night’s shooting at the Big Wall Carnival after-party say it is still “very early days as it relates to charges”, even as eyewitness accounts, reported security gaps, and the experience of an injured American visitor intensify scrutiny on safety at major entertainment events. The event, staged for several years after the Carnival road march, was held this year at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Hope Road in St Andrew.
‘We’re just hoping for the best’ Still grappling with the physical and psychological toll of Hurricane Melissa, schools across the worst-affected parishes are racing to ready grade-six students for the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams, now just days away.