Accountability Returns Under Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Speaking at the recent UNC media conference, Dr. Tim Gopeesingh, Chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), laid bare what many citizens lived through but were never officially told: the systematic collapse of public healthcare governance under the failed PNM administration from 2015 to 2025.
What was presented was not opinion, not rhetoric, and not politics. It was documentation, audits, payment trails, supplier records, and physical evidence of neglect. It confirmed that the suffering of patients over the last decade was not accidental.
It was the direct result of reckless mismanagement, corrupted procurement systems, and an absence of accountability at the highest levels of governance under the PNM.
Dr. Gopeesingh disclosed that the NCRHA alone handled approximately 500 emergency cases daily, admitting up to 100 patients each day, while simultaneously conducting 50,000 CT scans, 4,500 MRIs, 20,000 ultrasounds, and 170,000 X-rays annually.
Yet despite spending close to $14 billion over ten years, 546 suppliers were left unpaid to the tune of $321 million when the new board assumed office in August 2025.
In just four months, that number was reduced to 120 suppliers, with over $150 million paid. This did not happen by magic.
It happened because the era of political shielding and financial recklessness ended with the return of responsible leadership under Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The figures are damning. Between 2015 and 2025, $3.242 billion was paid to suppliers, with 57 percent $1.856 billion going to just 20 companies. Eight preferred companies alone collected $1.22 billion, averaging $150 million per year.
One cleaning company received over $111 million without valid contracts. Another received $59 million.
Some suppliers were paid promptly, others were ignored. Audits found no board approvals, no formal contracts, and years of month to month arrangements in clear violation of governance standards.
This is what the PNM calls “management.” This is what the opposition now wants the country to forget.
The physical state of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex told the same story. One functioning transformer for an entire hospital.
Non functional generators. All three chillers down. Raw sewage flowing untreated. Elevators unrepaired for decades.
Only three of eight operating theatres usable. ICU and HCU units without proper cooling. Broken beds, wheelchairs, boilers, incinerators, and missing surgical instruments. This was not decay. It was abandonment.
Since August 2025, the NCRHA board, acting under the clear policy direction of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has saved tens of millions of dollars by ending corrupt janitorial contracts, slashing overtime abuse from nearly $90 million to under $16 million, cancelling fraudulent purchase orders, renegotiating monopolistic supplier arrangements, and restoring basic hospital infrastructure. These are structural corrections, not cosmetic fixes.
The contrast could not be clearer. Under the PNM, billions were spent and patients paid with their lives. Under the UNC government, governance has returned, corruption is being confronted, and public money is once again serving the public.
The opposition PNM now lectures about accountability. They had ten years. The record is written in unpaid suppliers, broken hospitals, delayed surgeries, and needless suffering. No press release can erase that.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has made it clear: the era of squandermania is over. Healthcare is not a privilege. It is a public trust. And for the first time in a decade, that trust is being restored.
David Beckles, Arima
