The Tribune

4.05pm: Gregory Moss told auditors that he does not know a woman who needed heart valve surgery - despite a letter having been made public in which he said he was personally familiar with her and her family.

Algernon Cargill had said that Mr Moss had contacted the NIB's senior deputy director of operations, Cecile Bethel, to issue a guarantee for $15,000 to Doctors Hospital to pay for the surgery, but concerns were raised that this would be a direct violation of the National Insurance Act and Regulations.

Dr Kevin Bowe, VP of the Medical Department, told auditors that he received a call from the senior deputy director of operations. He said: "I got a morning call from Mrs Bethel and she told me that she was advised by the Chairman that a person is requiring a surgery... and that the surgeon will not go ahead with the procedure until there was a guarantee of the remaining balance. Mrs Bethel continued that Mr Moss had indicated that there was a source who had provided for part of the payment, he was not sure but thought it may have been the PHA.

"There was still a remaining balance which Mr Moss requested that NIB cover in a guarantee amounting to $15,000. It was also indicated that the surgeon is not touching the patient without getting paid. Mr Moss thought that NIB should be able to assist as this was a medical emergency."

He continued: I conveyed to him that we can't issue a guarantee as it was not an industrial injury and I was not aware of any provision in the Act to say otherwise. I said to the Chairman that there were only a couple of incidents wherein NIB issued a guarantee on non-work related injury."

When asked by Grant Thornton if he knew the patient, the audit reports that: "GM said that he doesn't know her."

The report continued: "GM then related that to prove that he does not to this day know that woman whom he gave the guarantee for he can recall that one morning, sometime after the surgery had been performed, Minister Ken Dorsette of the Ministry of Housing came to Freeport and after his business was concluded GM was dropping him to the airport. As it was still very early for his flight, they stopped at a business establishment and while they were walking in GM was approached by a woman who hugged him and said thank you. When he did not recognize her she said that she is the woman whos elife GM saved by helping to pay for the surgery at the Doctor's Hospital and she showed him her scar. GM said he remembers the woman's daughter from having seen her at rallys in Freeport and having collected a thank you card from her on behalf of her mother."

However, in January, a letter was leaked in which he sought to intervene to arrange a payment plan for the patient. In the letter to Dr Duane Sands, signed by Mr Moss and on his constituency letterhead, he wrote: "I am personally familiar with (the patient) and with her family and assure you that they are very credible and hardworking individuals whom I am satisfied with honour pay the balance to you and your institution in a timely fashion."

Gregory Moss was interviewed at Grant Thornton's office on February 7, 2013

3.12pm: FROM THE NIB REPORT: ALLEGATION 1.18 - xviii. in Affidavit

Mr. Moss also informed the hosts, Messrs. Wendell Jones and Godfrey Eneas that the Board of Directors had approved his directive to NIB to issue an ultra vires guarantee on July 28, 2012, to Doctors Hospital for $15,000 for surgery on a resident from Grand Bahama. This representation is false, as the Minutes of the Board of Directors of August 30, 2012, approximately one month later, confirm that this was not the case. At the August 30, 2012 meeting, the minutes (page 17, point 4.4.6) confirmed that at this meeting, the Board was advised that Mr. Moss had instructed NIB to give $15,000 for the person from Grand Bahama’s surgery. Mr. Moss subsequently advised the Board that prior to his instruction to Mrs. Cecile Bethel; he had been advised that this type of advance did not fit into NIB's statutory benefit parameters.

Mr. Moss had explained, at this August 30, 2012 meeting, that he was bringing the matter to the Board's attention (for the first time). A member of the Board reprimanded the Chairman, as recorded in point 4.4.12, stating that the Chairman had compromised his position as Chairman.

The matter was subsequently deferred, at point 4.4.19, to the Finance and Investments Committee for review. In summary, the Board of Directors could not have approved this benefit to this person from Grand Bahama in July 2012, as suggested by Gregory Moss on the JCN Radio and Television station on November 25, 2012, as the Board of Directors was not informed of this illegal guarantee until the August 30, 2012 meeting of the Board of Directors. Mr. Moss also informed Messrs. Jones and Eneas that he had reimbursed the Board for the illegal guarantee that he had caused NIB to issue. This assertion is also false, as is evidenced in Exhibit 18, the payment for this guarantee was provided to me by attorney, Ms. Melissa Hall, and not Mr. Gregory Moss, on the direction of the Minister Shane Gibson, with further instructions to meet with Doctors Hospital and request that the hospital not bill NIB for the illegal guarantee issued by Cecile Bethel on the direction of Gregory Moss. A copy of the excerpt from Minutes of the Board Meeting of NIB of the 30th August, 2012 is now produced and shown to me to be exhibited hereto marked "AMC-27".

3.10pm: MORE FROM THE REPORT: ALLEGATION 1.19 - xix. in Affidavit

Further Mr. Moss informed Messrs. Jones and Eneas on “Jones & Co.", that Mr. Frank Laing was an employee of NIB and was not his chauffeur. It is correct that Mr. Laing was contracted by NIB, at Mr. Moss' request, as a personal assistant to Mr. Moss, the first time in the history of NIB that a Chairman, including a Chairman from Grand Bahama, has had a personal assistant in addition to the Secretary of the Board of Directors assigned to the Board of Directors, and by extension the Chairman. However, Mr. Moss did not disclose that Mr. Laing was contracted only on July 25, 2012, and not terminated until August 22, 2012 when the Editor of The Tribune reported that Mr. Moss had contracted a chauffeur. Further, Mr. Laing did not report to any NIB office for duty during the course of his employment, as all full time employees are required to do, and when he did travel to New Providence with Mr. Gregory Moss, his core responsibilities, as it appeared to the Executive Management and the employees of NIB, were only to drive the Chairman wherever he required. There is no job description on file, although the contract of employment required Mr. Moss to provide one to Mr. Laing, and it should be noted that even the Secretary to the Board of Directors, Mr. Moss' closest employee in NIB, referred to Mr. Laing in a hand-written note to me, wherein she advised that I approve hotel expenses for Mr. Moss, as the Chairman's Chauffeur.

This note was provided to Mr. Moss via email, and Mr. Moss only reaffirmed the instructions of Mrs. Ernestine Kelson and did not correct the fact that the reference to Mr. Laing was the Chairman's Chauffeur. A copy of the said handwritten memo is now produced and shown to me to be exhibited hereto marked "AMC 28."

2.55pm: Algernon Cargill also alleged that Gregory Moss ordered that the director's office be switched with the chairman's office, and that he had told the VP of Business Support to contact an interior decorator to ensure that the office now occupied by the chairman be decorated to "a standard befitting of a Minister".

The audit team had no findings to report on this matter - although in interview with Gregory Moss, he said that he had recommended the relocation of the Director's Office. The audit says that Mr Moss said "that the Director occupied a larger office compared to the Chairman's office and that as Chairman he needed to have a larger space to allow him to do his work and hold meetings with Directors, staff and the Committees of the Board when needed."

It continued: "(Mr Moss) said that he could only recollect two things he did without prior approval of the Board and they are: 1) Switch offices of the Chairman and the Director and; 2) Switch parking spots of the Minister and Chairman to put the Minister's parking spot in a more prominent position than that of the Chairman."

The issue of the redecoration to a standard befitting a Minister was not addressed in the audit, with no indication given in the report whether the work was carried out as requested and how much it cost

2.45pm: The Tribune can confirm that the recently tabled NIB Report has cost the government of the Bahamas $861,000. Compiled by the firm Grant Thorton, the second part of the forensic analysis was tabled in the House of Assembly today. This second report was commissioned to investigate the contents of an affidavit filed by suspended NIB Director Algernon Cargill to "determine if the allegations involving Gregory Moss are factual and supported by documentation".