The Tribune

By DANA SMITH and

STEPHEN HUNT

FNM deputy chairman Dr Duane Sands said former National Insurance Board chairman Gregory Moss is either “perjuring himself” or has lied to him about knowing a woman who Moss helped get hospital surgery using $15,000 of NIB money.

According to the full NIB audit, which investigated allegations Mr Moss and suspended NIB director Algernon Cargill made against each other, Mr Moss told auditors he did not know the woman in question.

However, a letter to Dr Sands, signed by Mr Moss, shows he sought to intervene to arrange a payment plan for the woman, writing: “I am personally familiar with (the patient) and with her family and assure you that they are very credible and hardworking individuals.”

He directed an executive of NIB to issue a letter of guarantee to Doctors Hospital for $15,000 which helped pay for the woman’s heart valve surgery.

Following the tabling of the NIB audit in the House of Assembly yesterday, Dr Sands told The Tribune he received a letter – reportedly from Mr Moss – saying Moss knew the family.

“It is very, very unfortunately that certainly it is clear that he is either perjuring himself in the process of giving the interviews to Grant Thornton (the auditor) or he told an untruth when he wrote to me,” Dr Sands said.

“The two things cannot exist and be held as reasonable and true. Either he lied when he wrote to me, or he lied when he spoke to Grant Thornton.”

Dr Sands claimed: “We had at least one telephone conversation – and indeed, more than one; and so for him to say in his written statements that he did not know the family, then why would he tell me that he knew the family. Unless he felt it was justifiable in order to get something done.”

The Tribune sent NIB Minister Shane Gibson a copy of the letter sent to Dr Sands with Mr Moss’ signature. “I maintain that there is no such letter,” said Mr Gibson.

According to the tabled NIB report, Mr Moss told auditors that he does not know a woman who needed heart valve surgery – despite a letter having been made public in which he said he was personally familiar with her and her family.

Mr Cargill had said that Mr Moss had contacted the NIB’s senior deputy director of operations, Cecile Bethel, to issue a guarantee for $15,000 to Doctors Hospital to pay for the surgery, but concerns were raised that this would be a direct violation of the National Insurance Act and Regulations.

Dr Kevin Bowe, VP of the Medical Department, told auditors that he received a call from the senior deputy director of operations. He said: “I got a morning call from Mrs Bethel and she told me that she was advised by the Chairman that a person is requiring a surgery... and that the surgeon will not go ahead with the procedure until there was a guarantee of the remaining balance. Mrs Bethel continued that Mr Moss had indicated that there was a source who had provided for part of the payment, he was not sure but thought it may have been the PHA.

“There was still a remaining balance which Mr Moss requested that NIB cover in a guarantee amounting to $15,000. It was also indicated that the surgeon is not touching the patient without getting paid. Mr Moss thought that NIB should be able to assist as this was a medical emergency.”

He continued: “I conveyed to him that we can’t issue a guarantee as it was not an industrial injury and I was not aware of any provision in the Act to say otherwise. I said to the Chairman that there were only a couple of incidents wherein NIB issued a guarantee on non-work related injury.”

When asked by Grant Thornton if he knew the patient, the audit reports that: “GM said that he doesn’t know her.”

The report continued: “GM (Gregory Moss) then related that to prove that he does not to this day (February 7, 2013) know that woman whom he gave the guarantee for, he can recall that one morning, sometime after the surgery had been performed, Minister Ken Dorsette of the Ministry of Housing came to Freeport and after his business was concluded GM was dropping him to the airport. As it was still very early for his flight, they stopped at a business establishment and while they were walking in GM was approached by a woman who hugged him and said thank you. When he did not recognize her she said that she is the woman whose life GM saved by helping to pay for the surgery at the Doctor’s Hospital and she showed him her scar. GM said he remembers the woman’s daughter from having seen her at rallies in Freeport and having collected a thank you card from her on behalf of her mother.”

However, in January, a letter was leaked in which he sought to intervene to arrange a payment plan for the patient. In the letter to Dr Sands, signed by Mr Moss on his constituency letterhead, he wrote: “I am personally familiar with (the patient) and with her family and assure you that they are very credible and hardworking individuals whom I am satisfied will honour pay the balance to you and your institution in a timely fashion.”

Moss told Grant Thornton that the issuance of the Guarantee happened on a Saturday, says the audit report.

The report says: “He said that it was late in the morning when he got a call from a lady who identified herself as the daughter of a woman who needed surgery. She said that he knew her as she and her mother helped during the campaign with Mr. Darville and she said that her mother was having heart surgery the following Monday at 8am. She said that the surgery would cost $35,000 and that their family had only $15,000. She said that Dr. Sands told her that if he (Dr. Sands) does not get at least another $15,000 that Saturday, he would not prepare for the surgery and would not perform the surgery and this meant that her mother would die. Given the urgency of the matter, GM said that he called the mother’s local doctor, Dr. Forbes, to verify that what the daughter was saying was true and to discuss the condition of the mother. Dr. Forbes said that even if she had the surgery she would likely still not live. GM said that he then called Dr. Sands and told Dr. Sands that he would bring a personal cheque to Nassau the next week for $15,000, but that Dr. Sands still refused to proceed unless he received the funds that day.

Grant Thornton asked GM if he at any point advised AC, Osbourne Moxey and Theresa Burrows that his request was ultra vires the National Insurance Act and Regulations.

GM said that he did not advise any of those persons or anyone else of any such thing because that would not be true since that act was not ultra vires because he was authorized by the Board to enter into any contract of up to $50,000.

GM said that he phoned Mrs. Cecile Bethel and directed her to issue a guarantee to Doctor’s Hospital for $15,000. GM said that he gave the directive since the Board had authorized him to approve up to $50,000 for any contract subject to his obligation to report to the Board at the next sitting. He said that as a part of his directive to Mrs. Bethel he told her that he would recommend to the Board to consider it as a donation in the next meeting and that if it was not approved, he would pay it personally.

GM said that he subsequently discussed the matter with the Minister and advised the Minister that he would not bother with asking the Board to approve the sum as a donation, but would simply pay in himself. He said that he and the Minister agreed that a third party would issue a $15,000 cheque to Doctors Hospital in order to preserve GM’s anonymity and that he (GM) would then reimburse the cheque. He said that the third party then issued a cheque to Doctors Hospital and that he (GM) then issued a personal cheque for $15,000 to Joseph Curry to reimburse the third party,” the report concluded.