News, Top Story

Lawsuits Likely In Hospital Scandal

Image of an incomplete St. Jude Hospital

PLANS by the government to haul person or persons before the courts to give an account of the monies spent to date on the uncompleted St. Jude Hospital Reconstruction Project are well advanced as three lawsuits are expected to be lodged soon.

Word of this new development in the hospital saga was confirmed to this reporter by a government source this week, who declined to name the parties against whom the litigations will be lodged.

Image of the incomplete St. Jude Hospital.
The incomplete St. Jude Hospital.

The source insisted that the charges will be filed from the Office of the Attorney General and that those responsible will have to pay for failure to give accurate accounts of the monies spent on the hospital.

The government is said to have a witness who is prepared to testify at the trial. Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, two months ago, said that person, who conducted the technical audit on the project, has stated a willingness to testify.

Image of Economic Development Minister, Guy Joseph
Economic Development Minister, Guy Joseph

But while the parties to the lawsuits were not revealed, hints that they very well may be from or associated with the Labour Party were given by Economic Development Minister, Guy Joseph, who told reporters that there was no way he would sit by and allow the Labour Party to get away with what it did to St. Jude when it formed the government.

“They can march as many times as they want, somebody must account for what happened at St. Jude,” Joseph said Monday, referring to the recently-held march for St. Jude organized by the Labour Party.

Joseph took former Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony to task, saying that by the latter’s own account in 2015, he had expected to spend no more than $60 million on the hospital.

“I want him to account to the people of St. Lucia where the other $58 million and the other millions that are needed to complete the hospital, where is it coming from?” Joseph said.

Joseph wants public discussions on the hospital to move away from the almost $1 million spent on a technical audit for the hospital to the $118 million claimed by the audit to have already been spent on the hospital’s reconstruction.

On Monday, Joseph showed reporters a letter purportedly written by the consultant on the hospital project, Mandish Singh, to someone named Clarita Posada, Product Manager of Biomedical International Corp. in Miami, Florida, indicating a tentative completion date for the hospital. That letter was written on January 13, 2016.

Singh, in that letter, stated that despite the numerous third party delays experienced over the years, and following discussions with the Project Management Unit, the aim was to complete the buildings by August 2016, after which testing and commissioning would commence.

“We are very optimistic that this date is achievable based on the progress of works to date and the projected works to be executed in the next two quarters,” the letter read in part.

According to Joseph, what is interesting about the letter is the announcement that the hospital would have been completed just about two months after his party came into office in June of last year.

He wants to know why the hospital has not been completed based on the information in the letter and why St. Lucians want to hold him accountable for that. He promised that the St. Jude Hospital matter will remain in the public domain because he will not step back and allow what has already happened to continue.

Regarding the company in Miami, Florida called Biomedical International Corp., Joseph said it was paid in excess of $5 million for equipment for St. Jude since 2011/2012. He said the time period for the procurement of the equipment had lapsed several times.

The technical audit stated that $118 million was already spent on the hospital, while a handover report by the Project Manager, Shanta King, placed that figure at $80 million.

Micah George is an established name in the journalism landscape in St. Lucia. He started his journalism tutelage under the critical eye of the Star Newspaper Publisher and well known journalist, Rick Wayne, as a freelancer. A few months later he moved to the Voice Newspaper under the guidance of the paper’s recognized editor, Guy Ellis in 1988.

Since then he has remained with the Voice Newspaper, progressing from a cub reporter covering court cases and the police to a senior journalist with a focus on parliamentary issues, government and politics. Read full bio...

1 Comment

  1. I would really like to know who was it that sought out and found these people,
    the likes of some I’m not familiar with; take Mandish Singh, Shanta King, who
    are these people? they seem to have been involved in this hospital project
    accounting to millions and millions of dollars. To me (and I hope I’m right) a job
    with this kind of budget with the right kind of expertise should have been completed
    years ago. Who is the builder,what’s his background, what kind of construction project
    has he/she been involved in? assuming it was completed, was it according to approved
    plans and Specifications and are the Standards used o.k. with international standards?
    folks, we are dealing with a Hospital, damn it, not an Industrial building, or a little shack in
    the bush; no wonder smart folks have taken us (for granted) or have taken us – period.
    I’m looking forward to some solution, an answer, and I hope it wont drag on like this project.
    St. Lucia, be very careful, out there are some Hyaenas on steroids breathing out fire & smoke
    you have seen them, heard them, failures have happened so let’s be more careful next time
    we can’t, as a poor Country keep paying out $M’s to people, to me, who don’t seem to know
    what the hell they are doing.Two Blocks from here, two High Rise Buildings begone construction
    last summer, hoping to be ready for occupancy in the Spring. PROFESSIONALISM & INTEGRITY.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Send this to a friend