Members of the KHMH Commission of Inquiry – Justice Adolph Lucas, Orvin Nicholas and Julia Castillo – appear ready to get the Commission underway with the removal of a key delay – the audit report commissioned by Prime Minister Dean Barrow in June.
That report, Amandala has confirmed, was submitted to the P.M. before he left the country on Friday for Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
Commissioner Castillo told Amandala on Saturday that she, too, had received her copy of the report and was scheduled to meet today with Lucas and Nicholas to set the table for the long-awaited Commission.
However, it is Justice Lucas, who is acting as chair, who would forward any decisions coming from that meeting to the press.
In June, the hospital buckled under a two-day ‘go-slow’ initiated by members of the Belize Medical and Dental Union (BMDU), who worked there. The Union announced during that time that it had uncovered instances in which the hospital overpaid for certain supplies and medicines not falling under the tender process.
A messy month-long standoff ensued, featuring two attempts at settlement by Labour Commissioner Ivan Williams, the resignation of the hospital’s chief of staff Dr. Khalid Ghazy, numerous interruptions of and slow-downs in service, and eventually the resignation of the Chair of the hospital’s Board of Directors, Dr. Ricardo Fabro, who was accused of being a party to the reports.
Prime Minister Barrow appointed the members of the Commission some three weeks after these allegations first began surfacing. The Commission is tasked with determining if there was any criminal wrongdoing involved, recommend charges against any culpable individual and make other suggestions for improving the system.