Dawes demands probe into health ministry

Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Alfred Dawes says operations at the Ministry of Health and Wellness must be investigated following the tabling of the Integrity Commission (IC) report on the controversial awarding of contracts to a public relations firm.

Speaking on current affairs programme ‘All Angles’ on Wednesday, Dawes said the report has shown the country that the ministry has a systemic issue with procurement.

“I have highlighted it in the past, and we are seeing this again as further proof that there is a systemic challenge with the ministry. Rules were broken, rules were bent, and the idea that because no charges were recommended – this is not the ‘Illegality Commission’, it’s the Integrity Commission – and the attempt by the minister to conflate the two to say that if he was not referred for prosecution, it means he’s exonerated, is entirely false, and he’s misleading the nation,” Dawes said.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton welcomed the conclusion of the Integrity Commission’s investigation. He said that while there were several procurement breaches, he was not directly involved in the award of contracts to MarketMe Consulting Limited, whose co-Managing Director Lyndsey McDonnough is his friend.

The 105-page investigative report indicated that Tufton’s actions “indirectly” influenced the ministry’s engagement of the firm and that this resulted in the entity being awarded contracts of just under $80 million.

Six of the 15 contracts – 14 issued by the Ministry of Health and Wellness and one by the National Family Planning Board – were done in an “irregular” manner and “contrary to the principle of competition”.

The 15 contracts, awarded between 2016 and 2021, were valued at $78,579,522.49.

IC Director of Investigations (DI) Kevon Stephenson said that while he saw no evidence to indicate that Tufton was directly involved in the award of a contract to MarketMe totalling $15.8 million – the issue that triggered the probe – he found that the minister’s “actions could reasonably be considered to have indirectly influenced the engagement of MarketMe, which, ultimately, resulted in that entity being awarded contracts of just under $80,000,000”.

Dawes said ethical considerations and good governance principles were all tossed aside in the awarding of the contracts.

“I’ve highlighted before, and I’m sure that if we look deep enough during the COVID period, the direct contracting method was used quite a bit, and that was because they used it more as a response [to] the pandemic, the emergency. In this instance, there was no emergency, while you had 15 contracts being awarded under the direct contracting method,” said Dawes.

“The Ministry of Health needs to be properly investigated. I don’t buy this response that the minister’s exonerated, yet he is going to accept that there were procedural challenges that they are going to fix. What he is an effect doing is to move himself out of the equation and cast the blame on the accounting officers,” he added.

The health ministry, which issued a statement prior to the tabling of the report, said it has recognised the need to strengthen its procurement systems to ensure greater transparency.