Hospital tender was only for BIC, claims Watson

Cayman Islands Hospital, George Town

(CNS): A request for proposals (RFP) for the hospital payment and verification system was only put out to public tender because the minister said it was politically prudent, as Brac Informatics Centre (BIC) had expressed an interest in the project, Canover Watson claimed in court Thursday. The former HSA chair said that the health minister at the time, Mark Scotland, and then premier McKeeva Bush, among others, all wanted the AIS system and nothing else because it was the “holy grail” of solutions. Representation from what was described as “Moses Kirkconnell’s group” was the reason why he was directed to do an RFP.

In another full day in the witness box giving evidence in chief, Watson offered his explanations for some of the incriminating documentation and emails regarding the tendering process, the contract and his involvement with AIS Cayman Ltd that have led to the charges against him.

Watson, who is charged with corruption and fraud offences, admitted that he had received a draft copy of Doug Halsall’s AIS bid for the hospital contract just days before the deadline for the tendering process, which Watson was leading. He said this was because he requested a copy after discussions with the minister.

The former chair of the Health Services Authority claimed that the only reason the board had not pursued a ‘sole tender’ request from the Central Tenders Committee, as he believed AIS was the only company capable of delivering the type of instant verification system that the HSA needed, was because of the minister’s concerns over his political opponent’s interest. Nevertheless, he described Scotland as very enthusiastic about what AIS could offer and never once doubted it was the solution to the hospital’s bad debt.

But Watson said Scotland had been approached by Moses Kirkconnell and others regarding Brac Informatics and was not willing to exclude his political opponent. He said that the firm, which is owned by Kirkconnell’s sister and which Kirkconnell (who is now deputy premier) has an interest in, had made representations about the payment contract for the hospital. Although Watson believed they were not capable of supplying what was needed, an RFP was published, regardless of his advice to the minister to request a sole tender bid from the CTC.

However, when BIC complained that the RFP was skewed in favour of AIS and a deadline extension was not forthcoming, the company did not bid. Watson told the court that he then believed the RFP was no longer relevant as AIS would have been the only tender. So he admitted asking to see Halsall’s draft some three days before the deadline, following a conversation with Scotland.

He said that Halsall, the Jamaica-based business owner of AIS, told Watson that the additional costs for the Cayman base for AIS had not yet been added to the proposal he was sending him.

Watson is accused by the crown of being the person that increased the costs on that draft and returned it to Halsall before it was formally submitted. But he said that the bid which finally came in had a 4% transaction cost instead of the 3% that AIS had suggested during their earlier presentations. Watson told the court that he saw the inflated set-up costs and increased transaction charge for the first time when the bids were opened.

Watson told the court that on the day of the deadline AIS was, in the end, not the only bid that came in as two more proposals were submitted. While one was immediately disqualified, the other one from CERNER, the company that dealt with the hospital’s records system, met the criteria, which Watson said forced the board into an evaluation process.

He also revealed that once AIS was awarded the contract, he and Doug Halsall had a private meeting ahead of the contract being signed where Halsall raised concerns that the contract was only for patients insured by CINICO and made no reference to patients insured by the private sector or what became termed as the national roll out. Seeking assurances from government, Halsall wanted the contract to be changed to include this, Watson said.

Accused by the crown of doctoring the contract to include the national roll out at a later date and using it to manipulated the release of the cash for that project, Watson told the jury he made the contract changes during that meeting to a copy of the document. But he said the changes were never actually added to the contract that was signed because the minister would not agree due to budgetary constraints.

In the end Halsall signed the deal, Watson said, without the commitment to the national rollout written in the contract but he said he had saved a copy of the proposed amended contract on his laptop and had also sent a copy to his personal assistant.

Accounting for his close dealings with AIS, Watson said the minister had appointed him as Halsall’s ‘go-to man’ and the person that would steer the implementation of the system, which, Watson emphasised, was going to transform local health services.

However, the project was, it seemed, plagued with difficulties from the beginning. Watson blamed the problems on Dale Sanders, the IT manager at the time, saying it was Sanders who extended the timeline for implementation without consulting him. Then, despite being key to the technical aspects of implementing the project, when Sanders relocated to the United States and began working as a consultant, he neglected the project.

The case continues.