The original article can be found in: Trinidad Newsday By Lara Pickford-Gordon
Sacked site control officer for the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Wayne Rodriguez has defended himself against allegations of wrong-doing in relation to contracts for work done at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.
Rodriguez visited Newsday last week in an attempt to clear his name after a report that he along with Carlson Ramlal, manager of the Project Management Unit (PMU) and draughtsman Darwain Robain, were fired following an internal audit which found proper procedure was not followed for the purchase and contracting of goods and services.
“I have not done anything wrong. I have gone beyond my duties,” he said. (Rodriguez declined to have his photograph taken.)
Rodriguez, who was employed with the NCRHA since May last year, was notified that he was fired on April 12. This happened subsequent to an invitation to a meeting at Building 39, the NCRHA Administration Building which did not take place.
NCRHA acting CEO Dr Rodney Ramroop, on April 1, issued a memo to Heads of Department for an “immediate cessation of all unauthorised construction work.” It stated that all construction work “without necessary approvals must cease with immediate effect. You are to ensure that relevant members of staff under your purview are duly notified of same. Your compliance is expected.”
Prior to this memo being issued, Rodriguez along with Ramlal and Robain had appeared before a meeting with the board and executive of the NCRHA to explain the process used for work done at the EWMSC and why invoices bore the same date as the quotations for the job. While a report has said Rodriguez and the others were invited to other meetings, Rodriguez denied this.
He told Newsday he had nothing to do with preparing invoices for work done.
NCRHA chairman Dr Shehenaz Mohammed said the engineering department was responsible for preparing the scope of works for projects.However, Rodriguez said the PMU did this because the NCRHA engineering department did not have the capacity. Rodriguez said, “When we submit our RFP (request for proposals) scope of work to a manager of a particular area, the manager sends all the information to the chief executive officer who then calls the tenders committee department.” He said it was the chief executive officer who selected persons to be on the Tenders Evaluation Committee, and although he was on such a committee he was not familiar with any of the contractors selected.
He admitted that during his time at the EWMSC he performed duties which were outside his job specifications because he was asked to do so by a superior. He said he was also instructed to attend meetings to represent the PMU.
The issue of proper procedures not being followed came to the attention of the NCRHA after Smalls General Contracting Ltd sent a pre-action protocol letter to the NCRHA for payment of outstanding money totalling $1.2 million.
An internal audit was done which found quotations and invoices bearing the same date, and between August and November purchasing orders were signed by the PMU without going through the purchasing unit.
According to the RHA Financial Policies and Procedures Manuel — Purchasing and Contracting Goods and Services, “Purchasing staff is solely responsible for entering into procurement negotiations with suppliers on behalf of the authority, except in instances of emergency purchase orders. “This policy however, doesn’t prohibit other departments from seeking information from sources for initial information concerning the respective purchases.”
It also sates that “all purchases on behalf of the Authority must be documented in detail using the required forms and with the level of approval that must be agreed to from time to time by the Board of Directors.”
Apart from officials of the Purchasing Department, the NCRHA Purchase Requisition Form requires signatures from the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer and Hospital Administrator.
A source told Newsday “there was no paper trail” for the work completed by Smalls Contracting last August and there were other contractors doing work at EWMSC without proper procedures being followed.
Rodriguez said he found out about the contractor not being paid when someone from the company approached him in February this year. The man informed him of the problems he was experiencing due to lack of payment from the NCRHA. Rodriguez said he took him to a manager of NCRHA. Based on this action, he believed it was unfair to be fired.
