The Commission of Inquiry into the public allegations of corruption at the KHMH continued today. So far, things have been kind of staid – and the hearings have had the tone, mostly, of an administrative inquiry; in short, there hasn’t been much in the way of fireworks. But the temperature went up just a little today when and some small sparks flew when Delroy Herrera, supplies manager at the hospital appeared with KHMH attorney Leo Bradley.
Justice Adolph Lucas, Committee Chair
“So if anything sold….”
Delroy Herrera,
“They could have gone back into the Quickbook.”
Justice Adolph Lucas,
“Even if you have the answer listen to question fully before you answer. Even if you know the answer wait until we finish the question then you answer because I need to know that we are communicating to you fully before you answer the question.”
It was a rough start for supplies manager Delroy Herrera who was joined by Attorney for the KHMH Leo Bradley – and he was pressed on why duplicate purchases were made from private suppliers instead of the Central Medical Stores.
Julia Castillo, Commissioner
“You purchased on the third of November 2008 2,000 MCC syringes and CMS sent you 10,800 syringes on the fourth of November, I am only going by what the auditors have here. So you bought it on the third, CMS supplied it on the fourth and the question from the auditors was if it was really necessary for KHMH to purchase.”
Delroy Herrera,
“Like I said what happened at that time if I remember quite frankly is that we were not going to receive the item at the time we needed it so what would take place is that either the unit would write an incident report to the quality department and the quality department would want to know why we didn’t 10 CC or why we didn’t get 10 CC if the supplier was going to supply on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. We needed the purchase he item so we could have the 10 CC to administer the correct dosage of medication for the time being.”
Julia Castillo,
“Why did you purchase?”
Delroy Herrera,
“It is the same thing that I answered just a while ago and you’re asking the same question again with a different item.”
Julia Castillo,
“Yes because it is happening for different supplies all the time.”
Delroy Herrera,
“I understand that I have a job to do and I try to get my job done. Whenever I request for them to purchase, I send it to the purchasing department, if they choose to go ahead and wait until CMS receives the items then they can go ahead and wait on it. If they choose to go and purchase then they can go ahead and make the purchase. I don’t make the purchase I only the requests.”
That curt tone and contentious mood abated near the end of his hour long testimony when he spoke about food supplies – specifically vegetables from a supplier named Williams from Orange Walk who replaced Chell.
Delroy Herrera,
“With the meat and stuff I don’t a complaint on that as well. The only thing that we’ve been having is the vegetable.”
Orvin Nicholas, Commissioner
“Quality, stale, what is the line of complaint?”
Delroy Herrera,
“Sometime they would not say stale but they would say that the pricing is higher than before.”
Justice Adolph Lucas,
“Can you tell us why you shift from him to another producer? If you don’t know just say you don’t know. I notice on you now that you’re more relaxed. I am happy about that.”
Delroy Herrera,
“That wasn’t our call to change from the supplier. We just got Mr. Perrera told us that we were to get items from Mr. Williams.”
From vegetables to possible conflicts of interest Mansu is also a shareholder in a company Pharmaco Limited that sold supplies to the KHMH Radiology department – but he said it is no conflict of interest.
Orvin Nicholas,
“Did you inform the hospital that you were in business?”
Freddy Mansu, Chief Radiologist
“No that was my private business and I was with a partner so it had
nothing to do with the hospital.”
Orvin Nicholas,
“Can you explain to me how you’re able to satisfy your personal interests or set aside your personal interests against the interest of the hospital when it comes to dealing with your company?”
Freddy Mansu,
“Dealing with my company, I’ll go straight to tell you that my company was not incorporated to deal with the KHMH. That was the first situation. The reason why my company was able to acquire some things for KHMH was the occasion that in 2007 we got a radiologist, we have the CT machine for a long time, we have an ultrasound machine that was there for a long time, not functional because we don’t have a radiologist and for those services to start we had to acquire certain things that were needed. I made the requisition for those supplies, gave it to my director, he took it…there were not able to come up with anything that we wanted to start do services. So then my director came back to me, the whole country knew a radiologist was on board at KHMH and so they were coming for services but they could not be offered for lack of those materials and those materials were not supplied by CMS because it is not something usual. It was a new service that was starting at Karl Heusner. So they came back to me and said please we cannot solve this, is there any way you can help. I tried all the ways to see how we could help to get it but there was no way we could get it here. Then I got in touch with my partner, informed him of what the hospital wanted and it was really necessary and that was when we got those supplies for Karl Heusner.”
That partner was Arthur Saldivar who told us the acquisition was almost charity.
Freddy Mansu,
“I tried to source but I could not come with any for Karl Heusner so I informed my director that I was going to inform Mr. Saldivar to see if we could be able to find it for the hospital. I did for the necessity of the hospital, I didn’t do it for my personal gain.”
Justice Adolph Lucas,
“Because you’re employed with the KHMH and you are involved with this company, you should have informed your DMS or somebody in the hierarchy of the KHMH for the sake of transparency that you are involved in this company. So the question to you don’t you think essential and important to inform?”
Freddy Mansu,
“I should have.”
“I should have” - That’s about as close as it came to a gotcha moment today.
The commission continues its hearings next week Thursday and the names of those who will testify have not been announced because summonses have not been sent out.
