Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has admitted that she and Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan were notified by letter that thousands of US dollars had allegedly been embezzled out of the Children’s Life Fund last year.
Speaking to reporters after touring the $1.3 billion Couva Children’s Hospital yesterday, Persad-Bissessar said the alleged theft was now being investigated by the Fraud Squad.
The letter the PM was referring to was written by then CEO of the Children’s Life Fund Authority Genevieve Madoo on May 7, 2014.
In the letter, Madoo alleged that a former employee had obtained close to US$7,700 (some TT$50,000) by duping parents into signing receipts for money they were supposed to receive for day-to-day expenses when they travelled with their children for operations in Colombia, Argentina and the United States.
Asked yesterday whether she was concerned about the allegations of impropriety, Persad-Bissessar directed questions to Khan. She said, however, that she was heartened that the lives of 221 children were saved under the fund, which received $25 million in donations.
But Khan said there was no concrete proof to verify the allegations.
“What is being sent in the public domain is from a disgruntled employee who was released and has put misleading information into the public domain based on what she feels. However, these are only allegations and there has not been any concrete proof of any mismanagement or corruption.
“Whatever is available is in the hands of the Fraud Squad,” he said.
Pressed on whether there was any validity to the claims made, Khan said: “The matter is in the hands of the Fraud Squad. Until that is determined, I cannot say. What I can say is it was a disgruntled employee who was terminated for other things that the board of directors will indicate to the general population in due course.”
Persad-Bissessar said although she donated over $200,000 to the fund and her ministers each donated $100,000, the People’s National Movement MPs did not contribute to it.
She said screening for the UNC candidates would begin on Friday and despite the mischief drummed up by the PNM, nominations will be held on August 17 and the election will take place on September 7.
2,400 jobs being created
The PM said the new Couva Hospital will provide 2,400 new jobs when it was fully operational later this year. The facility would begin to take on patients from next month, after it was officially handed over by Udecott to the Ministry of Health, she said.
She said the modern facility offered the first Three Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (3T MRI) in the Caribbean, one of 300 operational in the world.