Tonight, the battle lines have been drawn between the administration of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) and its former employee, Delroy Herrera, a store clerk terminated in September who has since stepped forward with allegations of continued violations 20 months after a Commission of Inquiry was called to investigate the hospital’s procurement procedures for pharmaceutical, medical and other supplies following public complaints from the Belize Medical and Dental Union (BMDU).
Herrera alleges, by means of documents he has procured, that senior employees and administrators of the KHMH continue to violate the hospital’s regulations on procurement by dealing with a certain U.S.-based company, resulting in significant excesses in expenditure.
Late this evening, KHMH officials, through a release, once again rebutted Herrera’s allegations, and said that “It is on this platform of transparency that the KHMH authority is prepared now, as it has been in the past, to withstand scrutiny of its affairs. The Administration is therefore inviting the Auditor General and the Contractor General’s Office, as well as any other authority the Government of Belize may see fit, to launch full investigations into the management of the financial and material resources of the hospital. If any impropriety is uncovered as a result, firm and appropriate action will be taken against any implicated individuals.”
The above was probably in response to a declaration from Herrera yesterday, Wednesday, that he was holding a press conference at an unnamed date to discuss the issues.
We reported last week at press time that Herrera (we did not release his name at that time as he had not, and so far has not, been charged with any offence) had just been released from police custody; officers were still holding computer hardware and equipment belonging to his wife and intended to go over it the next day.
Herrera had been detained by police who visited his residence following a phone call to the Wake Up Belize Morning Vibes Show on KREM RadioandKREM TV, on Thursday, December 22, in which Herrera publicly revealed the contents of an internal memo written in March of 2010 by Director of Operations Angela Wade.
In that internal communication, Wade accuses Director of Finance, Carlos Perrera, of favoring staff members from his native Orange Walk with undeserved promotions and being “left to do what he pleases… and cause conflicts.”
On Friday, December 23, Herrera returned to the police station along with retained attorney Arthur Saldivar to witness the police’s search of the computers, to see if the police could find any stray files from the hospital. He was allegedly locked down again after trying to leave the station, but it was not made clear under what circumstances this took place, and he was eventually released.
The hospital has consistently denied any alleged wrongdoing and accused its former employee of “stealing” between some 10 – 30,000 electronic document files from the hospital’s internal server, allegedly including confidential patient records, that he had no authority to access.
Herrera, in turn, has maintained that he did not steal anything, as the files were stored in open access on the server, and he is therefore not guilty of theft, robbery or handling stolen goods as those offences are defined under the Criminal Code, Cap. 101, Laws of Belize.
Furthermore, he denied that any patient files are among the records, which he has reportedly already delivered to the Independent and Reporter newspapers and the news departments of Channel 5 and 7 Television. The Amandala newspaper was not included in Herrera’s initial generosity, though when we spoke with him tonight he indicated that he was prepared to issue the files he has to us.
The Reporter published some of the material three weeks ago and has since been asked to retract and apologize for the story, which it has not done to date; KHMH officials have threatened a lawsuit.
Channel 7 reported on Friday that it has been told to refrain from pursuing the “legal and police matter,” lest it get “into hot water,” but publicly refused to follow that “advice.”
In the KHMH’s press release sent this evening, Thursday, titled “Transparency and Good Practice at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH),” it claims a “platform of transparency” based on cultivating its support and relations with its “local and foreign benefactors” who have offered their assistance in improvement of services “on the basis of trust, good management, transparency and good fiduciary practice.”
Turning to its former employee, mentioned for the first time by name, the KHMH alleges that Herrera’s “breach of [the hospital’s] records” – a noticeable downgrade from the previous characterizations of stealing – “has been extended to a great number of correspondences that include private patient matters,” going on to allege that his so doing “compromises the confidentiality of these delicate and personal matters…the rights to privacy of our patients.”
It again mentions possible legal action against Herrera, to “ensure that the individual responsible for such breach” (meaning Herrera and/or possibly his accomplices, if any) “is held accountable.”
For his part, speaking for the first time with Amandala, Herrera declined comment on the KHMH’s strongly worded statement. Tonight, he told us only that he and Saldivar have planned a press conference for “shortly after the New Year” and promised one-on-one interviews at that time. He did confirm that he has not had any further run-ins with police since Friday, and that he has not gotten back his computer equipment, though only one of the computers had KHMH-related files on it.
Saldivar told the television stations on Friday, December 23, and us today, after confirming the planned press conference, that the documents are presently being “reviewed.”
There was no indication of how Herrera first learned of the alleged misappropriations or how long he had been gathering information, though he mentioned in his television interviews that Perrera had issued a directive for employees not to use “jump drives,” or flash drives, and to save all documents directly onto the server.
Herrera was a participant in the 2009 KHMH Commission of Inquiry, and testified at that time, as acting supplies manager, of managerial interference in the record-keeping of his department that would lead to excess buying from Central Medical Stores (CMS).
That inquiry ended with specific recommendations to improve the hospital’s accountability in that regard, with some senior employees being recommended to repay lost money.