Naf. 7M missing, payroll fraud and lack of Unicode number is preventing SZV from making payments
CAY HILL:--- The St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) is in a serious financial predicament and the institution remains mum on the issues they are facing. About two months ago management and the supervisory board fired the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mr. Elario after the Managing Director of the institution discovered that some seven million guilders were missing. SMN News understands that while the CFO was fired and SMMC kept the information in the closet it is alleged that the CFO took a loan from SMMC for himself and that too was not reported.
A source close to the institution said that the former Managing Director Dr. Scot made some agreements with external parties at the expense of SMMC. "It appears as though no one was aware of the agreements Dr. Scot made with these external parties, besides that an employee that was working in the human resources department was fired for committing fraud and forgery when she was booking extra hours for certain members of the hospital personnel. That too is another matter that SMMC swept under the carpet."
While SMMC has severe problems controlling its funds another issue that is hampering SMMC is the decision taken by the Minister of Health who agreed with SMMC to rotate cardiologists for a period of four months. "Cardio specialists come from the Netherlands for four months and then they leave. It's a rotation agreement SMMC has in place with the blessings of the Minister of Heath. Because of this the Ministry of VSA cannot issue the required Unicode number for these specialists to practice on St. Maarten because the law clearly states that Unicode numbers can only be issued to resident doctors, yet SMMC chose to continue with the part time doctors who do not a have the required Unicode numbers for payments to be made. The source said that SZV cannot to pay SMMC for the services they are providing to patients with cardio vascular diseases because the specialists that are treating them do not have the required Unicode numbers, this issue it is said goes way back since SMMC was rotating gynaecologists. SZV is obliged by law to make payments through the required Unicode numbers for tax purposes.
Just last week SMMC dispatched a letter to SZV informing them that all patients that require cardio treatment will have to pay for it out of their pockets since SZV is not paying for the services.
SMN News further learnt that SMMC and SZV are at odds for the amount of monies SZV owes the medical institution. It is said that SMMC claimed that SZV has close to Naf. 6M while SZV claimed the amount cannot be substantiated and they have a much lower figure. It should be noted that the tariffs at SMMC have not been indexed since 1986 and St. Maarten still does not have a policy in place to increase the tariffs, however, the former managing director Dr. Scot chose to illegally increase the tariff by 3%, all of which has contributed to the discrepancies in exactly how much monies SZV owes SMMC. Despite all of this SZV agreed to finance the urgent repairs at SMMC to the tune of Naf. 5M.
It appears as though SMMC, SZV and the Ministry of VSA have to make some sort of effort to work through their problems but one of the biggest hindrances is that SMMC cannot produce their financial statements for the year 2012 or 2013. The Inspectorate and SZV have been asking SMMC for their financial statements so that they could sort out some of the issues facing the institution but to date those statements are not forthcoming.
It is still not clear what SMMC has done to improve their services since they were placed under intensified supervision from September 2012 to December 2013, because to date nothing has changed at the medical institution. SMN News further understands that while the Inspectorate lifted the intensified supervision in December 2013, the new Managing Director Kees Klarenbeek found himself between a rock and a hard place because he found more skeletons in SMMC's closets than expected.
However, it is clear SMMC, SZV and the Ministry of VSA have to find a way to sit around the table and work on plan of action to sort out their issues if they are to move forward.