The Tribune

Not for publication!

Subject: FW: NIB Forensic Audit and questions for NIB!
 
Another version of this communication….
 
 
Good Day Mrs. Carron
 
Can you review the attached email correspondence between the Auditors and Alfred Sears, former Attorney General?
 
A lot of arrogance!
 
If this is truly and Independent Audit, that the Auditors expect to be widely accepted, why not follow conventional best practices?
According to Alfred Sears, and Edmund Rahming of Krys Global, the Forensic Auditor retained by Mr. Sears on Mr. Cargill’s behalf, Mr. Cargill and Wells, the persons who are subjects of Mr. Moss’ leaked November 8 letter should have been the first interviewed, the scope of the audit outlined, and any questions for these gentlemen posed at that time. IF the Scope Changes and it obviously has, they should again be interviewed in order that the investigation and their report reflect their views.
Instead, Mr. Gomez is reported in the Nassau Guardian and the exchange of emails sent to Mr. Sears as saying that they have no reason to interview Mr. Cargill and will not ask him any questions? Instead, they will listen to questions from Mr. Cargill as he may have information that they do not have.
Is this an Audit? Or is it a Witch Hunt?
 
And, IF Mr. Cargill and Wells were suspended by NIB, why is the Audit focused only on Mr. Cargill? Was there a better way for Shane Gibson to achieve his objective of removing Mr. Cargill from NIB? Why seek to destroy the reputation of someone whose Family has BUILT the PLP Government.
 
Is it a surprise that the Audit’s Engagement Partner, Mr. Kenrick Christie, is the first cousin of our Prime Minister? Is it a secret that this job was not put out to tender and instead, awarded to Grant Thornton? Is it a secret that Grant Thornton’s portfolio of Audits and related jobs has grown by more than 100% since May 7? Does this firm have a responsibility to NIB to provide the report that Mr. Gibson wishes, or if they truly want to operate transparently, why deviate from best practices and not interview Mr. Cargill from the outset? Why restrict the investigation to Cargill? Why not include the entire Board of Directors as Mr. Cargill surely made decisions that he was empowered to make, and surely, with the Approval of a Committee of The Board or the entire Board? So, is this an Audit or a Witch Hunt? Why not call Mr. Cargill in, advise him that we want to go in a different direction, and buy out his contract? Instead, Shane Gibson has created a mess!
 
If Shane Gibson is so concerned about the Truth, why did he not reprimand Cecile Bethel formally for breaching the National Insurance Act and Regulations when she issued the illegal guarantee to Doctors Hospital? Why is this not the subject of an Audit, particularly as Mrs. Bethel was fully aware and advised by NIB’s Medical Director that the Guarantee fell outside of the Regulations and should not be issued? Instead, Minister Gibson is rewarding her, has increased her salary in one swoop by $30,000 and has appointed her Acting Director?
 
If the Audit is intended to be fair, why not follow the comments made by the Hon. Prime Minister when he advised that he Audit will look at the Allegations raised by Mr. Moss and the Allegations raised by Mr. Cargill against Mr. Moss? To be fair to Mr. Moss, who we understood had an emotional collapse and sobbed like a baby when he was served the summons to appear in court, shouldn’t the Audit meet with him at the outset? Instead, Mr. Gomez is being quoted as stating that the Audit is substantially completed and they will invite Mr. Cargill and possibly Mr. Moss in to determine if they have any questions to ask and see if they have any information to contribute.
 
Well, if the Audit is going to be a real account of NIB, and not a witch-hunt to humiliate and further embarrass Mr. Cargill, why not focus on the activities of Shane Gibson and all activities and prior to May 2007 and post May 2012 since he was appointed Minister of National Insurance and Gregory Moss appointed Chairman?
 
1. He has hired more than 80 persons and has transferred persons all around NIB, without any Plan?

2. He has given increases to more than 250 employees and has forgotten more than 300. Is this because these 250 are known PLP supporters? Where are the unions?

3. Why is NIB hiring only electricians and contractors approved by Minister Gibson? Why is he using primarily one Electrician (Paul Smith/Electro Telecom) for all NIB related electrical work? Is this the same practice Cargill was accused of?

4. Why did Gregory Moss and Shane Gibson conspire to terminate Coastline Construction Company from the J.L. Center Project and appoint Ran Mar Construction Company to this $ 8 million job without tendering the job? And, why is Paul Smith/Electro Telecom again the Electrical Contractor on this job? Sounds familiar!

5. Why is NIB primarily using ONE Engineering Company, Island Design/Anthony Farrington and how much money has been paid to this company since May 7? Are there other qualified Engineering Companies? What jobs has this company been awarded and were these jobs tendered?

6. Why did NIB advise all of its service providers, i.e., Security, Janitorial, Plumbers, Elevators, Alarm, Landscaping etc in November that their contracts would terminate without sending these jobs to public tender, as was done every year during the period 2007-2012? Instead, NIB through direction from Minister Gibson, has handpicked service providers to be contacted to tender on these NIB jobs? Why is the documented Tender Policy, approved by the Board of Directors not being used? Why are all of the current service providers not allowed or invited to tender?

7. Why were two Senior Managers, one in Human Resources and the other in the National Prescription Drug Plan removed from their positions? Was this related to Minister Gibson’s suspicion that they leaked information to the Tribune about recent hires at the National Prescription Drug Plan?

8. Why is management of NIB allowing one of the two new political hires in the Drug Plan Officer to provide an excuse of M.I.A. (Missing in Action) as the business reason for not reporting to work on Referendum Day? This employee refuses to answer any other questions as to why she did not report to work and her excuse is to look up the definition of M.I.A.

9. Why was a new employee hired in the I.T Department yesterday and the department’s management not advised of the hire? What is the political connection here? Is this new employee skilled in I.T.

10. Why was PriceWaterHouseCoopers, one of the largest and most respected Accounting Firms in The Bahamas removed from the NIB engagement, although the firm had one additional year left under its agreement with NIB? And, why was a tender exercise, similar to what was used by NIB’s management during 2007-2012 to appoint PriceWaterHouseCoopers not used to appoint the new firm?

11. How many Government jobs has Grant Thornton received since May 2007, and were any of these jobs received a result of a Public Tender? Are they motivated to deliberately not follow best practices by not inviting Mr. Cargill and excluding Mr. Wells from the interview process because there is a motivation to further embarrass Mr. Cargill?

12. How can Mr. Gibson claim that he knows nothing about the hire of his relative and other employees at NIB when he provided instructions that all hires, transfers, promotions, terminations required his approval. Is he saying that NIB’s management acted outside of his directive and hired his relative without his approval? Why is NIB’s management not reprimanded, but instead, two senior managers, wrongly accused of leaking data, transferred from their jobs without any substantive posts?

13. Why did Mr. Gibson approve the contract of an employee for a further one year, although this employee is reported by Mr. Cargill in his Affidavit as attempting to bribe Perry Christie’s brother as per Mr. Cargill’s Affidavit, and seek to have Mr. Cargill approve a Mold Remediation Project that Mr. Cargill did not. Mr. Cargill reported this to Minister Gibson, as per his Affidavit, Mr. Gibson confirmed same, and instead provided instructions to renew his contract for a further one year period. And, this employee is reported to seek to extort money from current NIB vendors as is now being reported to the Tribune.

 
From: Algernon Cargill [mailto:algernonc@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 11:00 AM
To: ‘ecarron@tribunemedia.net’
Subject: NIB Forensic Audit
 
Hello Mrs Carron
 
I think this can make an excellent article.
 
Please read the exchange of communication with Grant Thornton and Alfred Sears, former Attorney General.
 
Please also consider the story in the Nassau Guardian yesterday. How can the Auditors complete a Forensic Review or any Audit without any discussion with the principals involved. And, if Mr. Moss recommended that both Cargill and Wells be terminated, why is the Audit focused solely on Mr. Cargill? Moreover, if Mr. Cargill acted on the authority of the Board or its members, why is there a witch hunt against Mr. Cargill? Shouldn’t the Audit focus on the operation of the Board of Directors?
 
If the Audit is nearly completed, and the Auditors have no questions for Mr. Cargill but will entertain questions he has for them, how can this audit be objective? What is the purpose of meeting with Mr. Cargill? Why no response to Mr. Sears’ letter of December 10?
 
If the Audit is nearly completed, and the Prime Minister indicated that the Audit will also focus on Mr. Cargill’s allegations against Mr. Moss, why has Mr. Moss not yet been interviewed? Are they afraid he will explode and spill the beans on the deliberate attempt to frustrate and humiliate Mr. Cargill – a game he did not play well and ended up being fired by the Prime Minister?
 
A key question: Why is the Prime Minister and Minister Gibson attacking Mr. Cargill – a man whose family has built the PLP? Was there a better way to achieve the desired result – the removal of Mr. Cargill from NIB?
 
As Mr. Sears has recognized, based on his years of experience as an Attorney, and previous participation in Forensic Reviews, and based on the advice of our Forensic Auditor Consultant, what is happening at NIB is quite unusual. This Audit seems to be a witch-hunt at best to wrong Mr. Cargill and to not look at practices of the Board or the decisions made.
 
One attorney advised me that the Auditors or any party can second guess business decisions – BUT if these decisions were approved within the authority vested in Mr. Cargill or the Board or its Chairman, what then is the purpose of the Audit?
 
How was the Audit firm picked? Why have they refused to interview Mr. Cargill and Mr. Raymond Wells? The partner assigned to the Audit, Kenrick Christie, is Perry Christie’s first cousin. Perry Christie’s brother was named by Mr. Cargill as being approached by an NIB employee to participate in kick-backs and Mr. Cargill refused to participate in this. As reported in the Affidavit, he reported this directly to Minister Gibson who confirmed same and admitted it was true. Instead, NIB has now renewed this employee’s contract for a further one year period. There are other reports from contractors that this employee who has been at NIB for less than 2 years has attempted to bribe them – Minister Gibson and management is aware of this and rewarded this employee by extending his contract for one more year as if they move him, or fire him for these activities, Mr. Cargill’s claims will be bolstered.
 
What other work was this Audit firm provided with since the elections? BEC Audit? Was this sent out to Public Tender or awarded to Grant Thornton as was the NIB Audit to another PLP firm? In this case, Pricewaterhouse Coopers,one of the largest firms in The Bahamas, who had one year left on their agreement, was terminated without proper notice by Minister Gibson and a new firm appointed. Is this how NIB should operate, particularly as PriceWaterHouse Coopers won the Audit through a competitive bidding process? (You may not want to use the name of the firms)
 
Why did Minister Gibson order the removal of the Senior Manager of the National Prescription Drug Plan and the Senior Manager of the Human Resources Department? He is blaming them for leaking information to the media about uprisings a the National Prescription Drug Plan. Where is the Union? Why are they so quiet?
 
 
I am aware that questions being asked of key personnel are along the lines of:
 
1. Are you aware if Mr. Cargill received any kickbacks?
2. How did you meet Mr. Cargill?
3. Do you think he was doing a good job?
4. Were you having an affair with Mr. Cargill?
5. What was Mr. Cargill’s relationship with XXX? Did they socialize together?
6. What was the purpose of Mr. Cargill’s business trips?
 
Why does the Audit cover the period 2007-2012 only – as Minister Gibson puts it – he is not looking at anything under “our term” that commence May 7. I’m certain that IF the audit focused on Minister Gibson’s practices since he became Minister, they would recognize the following: What would the Auditors uncover if they look at NIB’s actions post May 7?
 
1. Minister Gibson is in process of hand-picking vendors to provide Security Services, Maintenance, Alarm, landscaping, etc. at NIB without following NIB’s defined Tender process – NIB has historically gone out to public tender and invited all qualified vendors to submit a bid. Why has there been no public tender? Why were the vendors/contractors advised in November that their services will terminate and subsequently advised that they will be placed on month/month until a new vendor is appointed?
 
2. Why is Minister Gibson insisting that only one Electrical Contractor, Paul Smith/Electro Telecoms be used at NIB? Why was Paul Smith/Electro Telecoms , the Electrical Contractor being used at NIB the same Electrical Contractor appointed to the JL Center Job, the $8 million contract that was taken away from Coastline Construction Company and awarded without a tender to Ran Mar Construction Company Ltd.
 
3. Why is NIB primarily using only one Engineering firm – (Island Design Consulting/Anthony Farrington) for all major projects? How much has been paid to Mr. Farrington by NIB since May 7?
 
4. NIB hired more than 80 persons since May 7 – an employee started yesterday in the I.T. Department and similar to the Drug Plan, Management of the Department did not even know that the employee was hired.
 
5. Why does the new employees hired in the Drug Plan refuse to disclose to Management why they did not report to work on Referendum Day? Instead, one boldly stated that they were M.I.A. – MISSING IN ACTION.
 
6. Why did Minister Gibson promote and reward more than 300 employees at NIB since Mr. Cargill’s suspension - without any evaluation of the positions using the adopted Hay Methodology, without asking from recommendations from all members of the executive team, and at a fixed cost of more than $500,000 annually? What about the other employees who were not promoted? Is it because they are assumed to be Opposition Supporters? Where are the Unions?
 
7. Why did he increase the salaries of only some executives and not all? One has since resigned, claiming that the current style of management is the most unprofessional and unethical ever experienced and he/she cannot sit by and watch NIB be destroyed.
 
 
The point is: How are NIB’s current practices any different than prior to May 7? If anything, with the lack of public tenders, and appointments by NIB, it has deteriorated.