Young Jamaica rejects Dawes’ UHWI audit claims as 'barefaced'

Young Jamaica, the youth arm of the governing JLP, has dismissed as “barefaced and disingenuous” comments by Opposition health spokesman Dr Alfred Dawes blaming lack of oversight for procurement breaches at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

“Young Jamaica views the statement issued by Dr Dawes calling for independent oversight of the operations of UHWI as a slap in the face of the intelligence of the Jamaican people and confirmation of his willingness to seek to squeeze political mileage out of any issue in the public domain,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Dawes was responding to the release on Tuesday of an Auditor General’s Department report, which identified significant weaknesses in UHWI’s governance, procurement, and contract management systems.

“For more than a year, I have consistently raised concerns about procurement practices across the Ministry of Health and Wellness and its agencies,” Dawes said. “Each time, those warnings were dismissed, and the Minister assured the country that systems were sound and functioning properly. The Auditor General has now confirmed that this was simply not true.”

Dawes said the report’s finding that procurement documents were missing for $521 million in contracts confirmed “a long-standing pattern of governance failure” within the public health system.

However, Young Jamaica dismissed those claims as disingenuous and said it had posed three questions to Dawes, a medical doctor who was recently elected to the House of Representatives on a People's National Party ticket.

The group called on Dawes to clarify whether any company linked to PNP parliamentarian was among the private entities referenced in the Auditor General’s report, and to disclose whether he has ever had any ownership, partnership, or professional association with any such company.

Meanwhile, Young Jamaica said it welcomed the decision by the UHWI Board of Directors to refer matters arising from the report to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Fraud Squad, particularly allegations that private companies benefited from the inappropriate use of the hospital’s tax-exempt status.

The Auditor General reported that UHWI’s tax-exempt status was misused to import items for at least three private companies, resulting in the State losing approximately $23 million in revenue.

Young Jamaica said it supported the Auditor General’s findings and insisted that all follow-up investigations be allowed to proceed “and the chips fall where they may”.

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