The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands suggested yesterday Bahamian taxpayers did not get value for money from the “tens of millions of dollars” spent on National Health Insurance consultancies.

Dr Sands insisted that the previous Christie administration “wasted” a lot of money like the country “was balling” by spending “money left, right and centre” on the initiative.

As the newly elected Minnis administration delves deeper into the former administration’s handling of NHI, Dr Sands said the government is discovering that through monthly and annual fees, some foreign consultants were paid up to $500,000 each month while other non-Bahamian firms got $250,000 monthly.

The Elizabeth MP said NHI was the greatest example to date of fiscal ineptitude and fiscal mismanagement by the former administration.

Having spent large sums of money on an initiative that is “not ready”, Dr Sands said Bahamians want to know when they’ll receive the benefits promised to them, adding that the government will “stop, review” and make NHI right for Bahamians.

Asked if there was any validity to claims that audit firm KPMG had been paid $500,000 a month for its NHI work, Dr Sands said “at one period of time this was correct.”

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance K Peter Turnquest revealed the Christie administration paid over $10m in consultancy fees for NHI in the last fiscal year.

“As we put together the numbers now and we see the monthly or annual outlays for foreign consultants, up to tens of millions of dollars spent,” Dr Sands told reporters following the morning session of the House of Assembly yesterday where debate on the 2017-2018 Budget began.

“Some consultants (were) getting up to $500,000 a month (and) other consultants (were) getting $250,000 per month, non-Bahamians firms.

“And you ask the question, as we look at the final product of National Health Insurance whether the Bahamian people got value for money. You spent all these millions of dollars and what do we have?

“I would say that National Health Insurance is an example of not only fiscal ineptitude, fiscal mismanagement, but it becomes the poster child of what happened during the last administration.”

He continued: “(There was) a lot of talk (and) a lot of waste. It was like we was ballin’. We got money left right and centre. So we got VAT money, let’s spend it. Let’s put some pretty ads out there and let’s sell the people a dream. But when you dig deep and see what is it that you can deliver to the Bahamian people it’s not much there.

“And so now what we are faced with is a situation where the Bahamian people expected value in terms of their health and they are looking at us and saying where is this National Health Insurance plan that was going to get rid of the cook-outs? Where is this National Health Insurance plan that is going to keep us healthy?

“Am I justified now in spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for non-Bahamian consultants when NHI is not ready to help the average Bahamian living in regular conditions in any place in the Bahamas? The answer is no.”

Dr Sands said moving forward, the government intends to spend $40m on NHI. Roughly $10m, he said, will be spent to set up the staffing and administration, an estimated $15m for primary care and $15m for catastrophic care.

He explained that this will come from the Consolidated Fund.

“Bear in mind that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (Peter Turnquest) has made it clear that each of these programmes will need to be funded at some point. In this first fiscal year this is going to be funded through the Consolidated Fund, we acknowledge and admit that.

“We now have to find a way to ensure that each of the healthcare barrels or bins eliminates as much waste as possible so that maybe we are able to shift some monies to increase the allocation into essential services. So the Public Hospitals Authority consumes two hundred and something million dollars.

“But make no bones about it, the charge is to find the waste, cut the waste and convert that to value for the Bahamian public,” Dr Sands said.