Former UHWI CEO says use of documents with his signature 'unfortunate'

 

 

Former Chief Executive Officer of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Kevin Allen has described as unfortunate, the revelation that documents with his signature were used to facilitate the importation of items with the hospital's tax exempt status after his departure in 2022.

 

Mr. Allen was answering questions in relation to operations of the UHWI at Tuesday's meeting of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

 

During a previous meeting of the PAC, Acting CEO of the Jamaica Customs Agency, Kirk Benjamin, said in the case of two of the companies which benefitted from the UHWI's tax exemption status - JACDEN and Supreme Laundries - the signature of Mr. Allen, was on the C85 forms that were submitted to Customs.

 

Mr. Benjamin said the two documents were submitted for the period 2023-2024. He said the Customs Agency was not notified that Mr. Allen was no longer with the UHWI during that period.

 

Addressing the issue, the former UHWI CEO explained that the signed forms were used for internal purposes to facilitate emergency clearances at Customs. 

 

"Some of those forms, about four or five at a time, would have been signed blank. But let me hasten to say to the committee, that upon submitting my resignation, a second letter was drafted to management, informing management to remove my name from all accounts and other relevant documents that I would be required to sign in performing my duties. So it would have been unfortunate for someone to be using those few documents after my departure," he lamented.

 

Asked whether he or the hospital's board could have delegated that authority to a procurement head instead of signing blank documents, Mr. Allen said there was no concern at the time, on his part, that the practice of signing blank documents would be misused. 

 

"In hindsight, probably, sir, but in operating at that level there is some amount of trust. This is not a blank check. This is not a declaration. It's a document used for internal processes. It is managed by senior persons within the organisation. And so I am wondering after a year or whatever that I have left the organisation, why it would have been used. But it's something that the current management need to look at and to implement additional controls," admitted the former CEO. 

 

Current Acting CEO of UHWI, Eric Hosin told the committee that the practice has been discontinued.