The Christie administration executed over $90 million worth of medical-related contracts -- one of which was for the cleaning of an Abaco clinic that was closed -- just two weeks before the 2017 general election, Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands revealed yesterday.
Sands said the contracts were executed despite a $16.4 million shortfall that prevented the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) from purchasing much-needed medication, vaccines and completing critical renovations at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH).
Additionally, he said the former government left millions of dollars in unpaid debt, including about $2 million in National Health Insurance (NHI) related costs.
"I am ashamed to admit what our government did," he said yesterday as he contributed to debate on the 2017/2018 budget in the House of Assembly.
"In addition to funding carnival, incredibly, they made the time and found the money to award... $90 million of lucrative contracts to people, who some would call the party faithful. The reason given was that the clinics had to be upgraded.
"So the Cabinet directed that $9,778,304.86 be paid as a down payment for new contracts for health projects throughout The Bahamas. This was conveyed by Permanent Secretary of the OPM (Office of the Prime Minister) Creswell Sturrup to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health on April 27, 2017."
Sands' written communication explains that the sum was a down payment for $75 million worth of new contracts.
During his two-hour long contribution, Sands painted a picture of fiscal mismanagement on the part of the Christie administration and categorized the issuance of the pre-election contracts as "political downpayments".
"We have a shortfall in the current expenditure of the Public Hospitals Authority of almost $16.5 million, which was needed for medication, vaccines, dialysis and other ongoing costs," Sands said.
"Additionally, what I found was that projects on the children's ward, male surgical ward, the chest ward at the Princess Margaret Hospital was stopped midstream, paralyzing the heart and soul of our healthcare system, Mr. Speaker, because of a lack of funds.
"We have 67 out of 400 beds at PMH taken out of service, beds that were needed for sick patients.
"Patients had to wait in the emergency room for days for a bed."
Additionally, Sands said $9 million is owed to the nursing council and another quarter of a million dollars is owed to the health professional council.
"So even though the treasury could not pay millions and millions of obligations affecting thousands of ordinary Bahamians - many of whom were suffering extreme financial hardship because of the government's delayed payments -- they were authorized, directed to make what some would call a political downpayment," he said.
"In addition, Mr. Speaker, the side opposite, they entered into $9,756,006.64 worth of security contracts, janitorial contracts, generator purchases and miscellaneous items weeks before the general election.
"My Lord.
"...We have contracts here, monthly cleaning services for the Exuma mini hospital (worth) $424,638.84.
"We have a monthly cleaning [contract for the] Abaco clinic. Now, the Abaco clinic has not been open, Mr. Speaker."
Sands said the Abaco contract was worth $500,000. Another contract was for monthly landscaping services worth $126,000. Sands did not identify where the landscaping contract was issued. However, he promised to table the contracts later.
Sands said he wishes that was the end of the story.
He said since coming to office, he's made several other distressing discoveries.
The government has not paid housing for clinic staff in many of the Family Islands, Sands said.
"We dig deeper and find that NHI has unpaid bills of $799,116 for customer service representatives and $1,305,000 for two consultant firms, who at times were costing the Bahamian people as much as $500,000 and $250,000 per month respectively," he continued.
Sands said the government failed to provide the promised $5 million to recruit nurses and other health professionals to staff the Critical Care Block.
"That was never paid," Sands said. "So today we have critical care beds that cannot be opened."

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