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By Charles D. Sherman (Miami Herald) |
Martin said he had wanted to send sick Antiguan children from this tiny Caribbean island to Miami hospitals for surgery needed to save their lives. His letters to the government on the children's behalf, he said, had been ignored, his personal visits to the Health Ministry turned aside.
Last year, when one youngster in his care died, the parents blamed Martin. ''Excuse me,'' the doctor sobbed. "That was hard to take.''
At the urging of the public, three investigating judges have been charged with figuring out where $230 million or more in state health insurance money has gone, an enormous sum for Antigua. The results of the investigation will help form the basis for the prosecution of dozens of officials and others involved in defrauding the fund.
Listening to Martin's account of the neglected children, the judges on a stage of the sprawling Antigua and Barbuda Exhibition and Cultural Center shifted uneasily in their high-backed chairs. From the auditorium, low moans came from 300 members of the public.
It is by way of the judges and the press that Antiguans have been learning that for years government officials treated the state insurance fund, called the Medical Benefits Scheme, like a personal checking account. Instead of paying for medical services, evidence shows that money deducted from workers' salaries has gone for lavish parties, foreign travel for government cronies, thousands in kickbacks to the program's accountant, cosmetic surgery overseas for officials and even toys for the children of fund administrators.
LARGER SCALE
Corruption scandals, such as government involvement in gun-running and drug trafficking, are not unknown in Antigua and across the Caribbean, but the benefits fund investigation is significant for its scale. The fund's record-kee
ping
has been so poor over the 23 years of its existence that the
amount looted from the program will never be known, but what
is clear is that virtually every Antiguan citizen has suffered
thousands of dollars in lost benefits.The most common expression heard today on the streets of Antigua's capital, St. John's, is: "Where deh money gon'?''
Along with proving a deep embarrassment to the government of Prime Minister Lester Bird and posing a powerful challenge to his Labor Party's unbroken 26-year rule, the revelations are also sharply intensifying a long-running battle over press freedom on the island as officials seek ways to stem the flow of bad news.
With a history rooted in centuries of slavery and a culture embedded in punishing work on sugar plantations, the people of the two-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda are, if anything, an enduring lot. But what appears to have happened to the insurance money, their one prized social benefit, has outstripped their understanding.
From Chamber of Commerce leaders to hotel chamber maids, the public is angrily demanding an accounting.
To get it, 12,000 of the island's 70,000 citizens signed a petition last year for an independent investigation of what appeared to be massive fraud. Sidestepping the government, the petitioners presented the signatures to Antigua's ceremonial head of state, Gov. General Sir James Beethoven Carlisle.
Sir James, Queen Elizabeth's representative on the former British colony, had no choice. He quickly urged the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into the Medical Benefits Scheme with the independent three-judge panel headed by Sir Alister McIntyre, a respected Grenadian diplomat and educator.
Bird bowed at last before the furious public.
Though always an expensive proposition, Antiguans who need treatment beyond the medical capabilities on the island can apply to the benefits scheme to seek care overseas for illnesses, such as diabetes and chronic heart problems. To pay for this, workers contribute 3 percent of their pay to the benefits scheme, while employers add another 2 percent.
But, as Martin explained to the judges, political favoritism seemed to determine who actually received help, while huge sums were siphoned off by corrupt officials.
SOON TO BE DRAINED
In the meantime, independent auditors hired by the inquiry are forecasting the benefits fund will soon be completely drained to pay for the construction of a new hospital, a project so rife with corruption and mismanagement that a government bailout from general revenue or huge loans is needed.
In the midst of the public outcry, the government issued an astonishing statement revealing it had failed to contribute the equivalent of 120 million Eastern Caribbean dollars, or $48 million in U.S. currency, to the insurance fund to cover government workers' salaries.
Following evidence presented at the inquiry's first session late last year and a second last month, Richard Cheltenham, a veteran Barbados attorney serving as chief counsel for the judges, said he had heard enough: He calls the benefits fund ''a milch cow for officials and the state'' and "an engine of fraud.''
Trying last year to stem the growing embarrassment, Bird fired Health Minister Bernard Percival and Attorney General Errol Cort, saying they had violated regulations governing the benefit plan, though both claim they were axed for bringing the fraudulent practices to the attention of the Cabinet.
Percival, a former New York banker who remains a member of Antigua's Parliament, says bluntly the benefits scheme was 'mismanaged deliberately for the purpose of hiding inadequacies and the administrators' personal gain.''
Cort, an attorney now in private corporate practice, says there was good reason for Bird to fight the inquiry. ''He obviously knew the depth of the corruption,'' Cort said. "I think he felt it would jeopardize his position and the government if it came out.''
STOMACH SURGERY
More outrage was to follow when 33-year-old Asot Michael, the prime minister's obese chief of staff, went to the United States for stomach reduction surgery and returned with a $55,000 bill, which the benefits fund footed in large measure.
Rousing the public's anger over the insurance fraud is the Observer Group, owner of a two-fisted tabloid with a circulation of 6,000. Along with a companion radio station, started a year ago, Observer journalists have published and broadcast exposés and searing denunciations of the government over the insurance program mess.
The coverage has infuriated the Bird government and provoked threats from ministers to close down the paper and station.
But whether the news is reported or not, the Bird government is sure to face more criticism.
ANOTHER INQUIRY
In another session which started recently, the Commission of Inquiry promised to look into millions of dollars in government purchases of medical supplies such as bandages and pharmaceuticals from U.S. and Caribbean distributors. With no bidding process, according to investigators, prices in some cases were inflated by as much as 400 percent, providing more suspected kickbacks to officials.
Asked what he thought would come of the investigation, Bird said: "You never know where a commission of inquiry will lead.'
Latest Developments
In the latest developments Trade Minister Hilroy Humphreys, one of the old stalwarts of the Antigua and Barbuda Government and long-standing ally of Prime Minister Lester Bird, has quit the Government amid the ongoing probe into allegations of corruption in the operations of the state's Medical Benefits Scheme.
Prime Minister Bird told the country that he had accepted Humphreys' resignation and praised him for his decision.
"I know that the people of Antigua and Barbuda ... are very displeased with the misjudgments of Mr Humphreys and the disregard of due care and procedure," Bird said in a televised national address.
"Mr Humphreys has himself indicated to me that he may have acted hastily," Bird said, but Humphreys "was convinced that his actions were not wrong."
Humphreys told the commission of inquiry that he did not conspire with building contractor, Dave George, to defraud the programme of about EC$90,000 (US$33,000) meant for patients' overseas treatment.
Humphreys, who was health minister from 1994 to 1996, was also accused during that time of helping George receive five building contracts without having to bid for them.
Public hearings into the benefits programme over the past year have revealed that claims were filed for cases that did not exist, and cheques were cashed for patients who never received benefits.
The inquiry has also revealed the Government did not pay EC$120 million (US$44.4 million) in contributions on behalf of 8,000 of its employees since 1978. The Government has said it is trying to settle the debt.