Enill promises action in NWRHA $$ scandal

Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Conrad Enill, yesterday said if public funds were used in a way in  which they were not intended, “then the action to be taken is to deal with the individual who made that decision.” Speaking to the media yesterday, Enill assured, “that will happen.” He made these remarks in response to a question about public agencies redirecting funds because of a shortfall in financing from government. The North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) is seeking a bail out from the Health Ministry for its $107 million debt to the Board of Inland Revenue. On Wednesday, Health Minister John Rahael said preliminary information indicated that the NWRHA suppressed the payment of taxes deducted from workers’ salaries to pay additional staff it hired.

The Ministry has given the NWRHA until Monday to present a report about the situation. Any mismanagement of public funds is addressed through the Auditor General’s reports, Enill said. On an ongoing basis the Auditor General addressed issues of governance and management “and they in fact provide to accounting officers recommendations for improvement.” He said the Ministry of Finance was looking at the Auditor General’s report for the NWRHA and other institutions. “The Ministry of Finance is instructing all accounting officers to ensure that whatever issues arose are going to be dealt with. Understand, this is a function of the Board of directors of that institution and the Minister of Health has correctly commissioned an investigation.”