EXCLUSIVE: USZV Director and Minister of VSA looking to overshadow Operational Audit of the Organization.

~Inspectorate’s Audit never conducted, despite agreement with all parties.~

PHILIPSBURG:— The Minister of Health Emil Lee and Director of USZV Glen Carty are trying to use their power to remove the allocated budget for the scheduled Operational Audit that the Supervisory Board of the Organization want conducted.
SMN News learned that the Supervisory Board of Directors of USZV allocated the funds in their budget for the audit but the Director of USZV Glen Carty tampered with the budget which caused some sparks between the Supervisory Board members and Carty. SMN News further learned that Minister of Health Emil Lee also wants the Operational Audit removed from the Supervisory Board’s budget because he is not in favor of an audit since it will show the misspending of USZV funds. Lee is expected to hold a meeting sometime next week to further discuss USZV budget.
This latest development is not the first undertaken by the Minister of Health Emil Lee. In July 2016 the Inspectorate of Health wanted to conduct an audit of the medical referral department after several persons began complaining about their daily allowances. At the time the Inspectorate seemingly was concerned about the huge investments USZV was making namely for the Government Administration Building and for the construction of the New General Hospital. When SMN News broke the news on the planned audit by the Inspectorate on July 06th 2016, an emergency meeting was held by Minister Lee, the Inspector General Dr. Earl Best and Director of USZV Glen Carty where Lee and Carty agreed to the audit but to date that audit have not been conducted and all parties went silent on it. For refresher follow this link: http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/22822-exclusive-inspectorate-to-move-in-at-szv-to-conduct-audit.html

It is not clear why the Inspectorate never move ahead with the planned audit even though USZV already spent millions on the Government Administration Building and on consultant fees for the New General Hospital while several persons that had medical issues have been complaining about the constant hassle they receive when seeking medical assistance and needs USZV to shoulder their expenses. At least one patient that has had several issues with USZV filed an injunction against USZV for not respecting the advice of doctors locally and internationally. That case is still be heard by the court.

The Minister also interfered with the follow up audit of the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) which was also scheduled for 2016, two years later that audit was not conducted even though healthcare has deteriorated at SMMC.
The said audit landed the Inspectorate in court since SMMC felt the court has to outline what the Inspectorate could and could not do while they also wanted the Inspectorate to outline the norms they would use in the scheduled audit. Besides the court cases, the Minister went as far as issuing a gag-order against the Inspectorate which landed him in court.
The relationship between the Minister and Inspectorate became so strained that parties ended up at the Ombudsman. While Minister Lee spends his days micro-managing and interfering healthcare on St. Maarten plummeted. This of course creates more risks for patients and skyrocketed the overhead expenses for patient’s referral which has to be covered by USZV. These past months several patients have been crying out loud due to the mess at USZV and the fact they are not able to obtain the benefits they paid from their salaries. For refresher please follow this link: http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/25772-minister-of-health-blames-inspectorate-of-health-for-interfering-with-the-audit-of-smmc-says-he-prefers-amicable-solution.html 

USZV spent over $40M on consultant’s fees for the New General while the Supervisory Board gave a negative advice for the construction of said hospital the Director committed SZV two days before the February 26th snap elections while another $40M was spent on Medical referrals overseas in the year 2017 and the $1M paid to VAMED to settle their court case against USZV. Not to mention how much was defrauded by USZV staff member.
Millions was also spent on SZV 3.0 system which the current Director now want to abandon and the Supervisory Board of Directors sits back without taking proper measures.
Minister Lee also approved the NAF.25.000.00 remuneration for Director Glen Carty without consulting with the Supervisory Board.
Another upheaval currently taking place within the organization is that the Minister wants USZV to continue full medical coverage for Maho Group of Companies even though the employees are only working five hours per day. It is understood that Ruth Brewster the interim COO gave a negative response to Maho Group of Companies which sparked her removal from the position and the appointment of Reginald Willemsberg as of May 1st.
SMN News learned that USZV employees are grumbling because they felt giving Maho Group special treatment will not be fair while workers from government owned companies are not getting special treatment. SMN News understands that the Minister is forcing his will on getting USZV to give Maho workers full coverage.
While USZV staff are in uproar and there is clear mismanagement the Supervisory Board of Directors sits back and enjoy the stipend they receive instead of defending the interest of the organization and workers premiums. Several of the Supervisory Board members are directly affiliated with the leader of the Democratic Party, one being the Chairlady Sharine Daniel who openly campaigned for Wescot Williams while her son in law Dwight Williams is also on the board not to mention Emil Lee best buddies Brian Deher and Alexander Gumbs.
When USZV and Government signed the agreement for USZV to finance the Government Administration Building parties told the media that Government would have start paying rent for the building as of July 2017 but to date no rent is being paid.
Emil Lee has been holding the VSA portfolio since 2014 and while the Minister want people to believe that he is doing what is best for healthcare the truth is that he has created a huge mess throughout the Ministry and heathcare on St. Maarten has dropped to the lowest point. People are losing their lives for the lack of proper care, late diagnosis of late referrals overseas for proper care.
The Dutch Government had said that the NHI had to be implemented by December 2017, to date nothing has been done to implement the NHI which almost everyone knows will not benefit St. Maarten and its people since the tax base on St. Maarten cannot support such a system.
The Minister who boasts of integrity and transparency again campaigned on the BIG legislation for the February 26th snap elections. Bear in mind the Minister campaigned on the same during the 2016 election campaign. What the Minister did not tell voters is that he has the draft legislation since June 2017 and to date he has not taken the legislation to parliament neither did he or department of public health present the draft legislation to stakeholders in healthcare. Clearly, Minister Lee is focused on getting a New General Hospital instead of focusing on improving the quality of care on St. Maarten. For more on the state on the state of the healthcare follow the link.  http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/26971-exclusive-an-assessment-on-healthcare-on-st-maarten.html 

Source: St. Martin News Network http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/29020-exclusive-uszv-director-and-minister-of-vsa-looking-to-overshadow-operational-audit-of-the-organization.html

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