OPPOSITION Senator Lambert Brown is questioning the spending of $27 million to purchase a neuro drill for Bustamate Hospital for Children which, he says, amounts to three times the usual price of the equipment.

Making the claim during his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate last Friday, Brown charged that the public health sector needs to be more efficient as resources are being wasted.

According to Brown, “a little bird” told him that the hospital recently purchased the neuro drill — which is a high-speed surgical tool used in neurosurgery and spinal procedures, to help surgeons perform delicate surgeries with precision and efficiency — but the price is not adding up.

“When you check on the Internet, that drill can be had for US$32,000. I have seen [an] invoice where that said drill was purchased in China at under US$14,000. If I bump up the price of that drill, to…US$50,000 and multiply that by J$160 to one, that’s $8 million,” Brown said.

“That could buy three drills, and if you buy from the people who building the children’s hospital in Montego Bay, yes, you could buy probably 10 or more of such drills. Something wrong, something wrong, and I’m calling on the Integrity Commission to investigate that purchase and whether Jamaica got value for money,” Brown said while demanding that the contractor involved in the purchase be revealed.

Lamenting that the drill was sold at the equivalent of US$170,000 to the Government, Brown questioned how such an expensive purchase was made yet “there is no microscope to carry out paediatric neuro surgery”, at that hospital.

“What I am told, much of the tumours that our children face is in the back of the head and that microscope would help the neurosurgeon to find all the tumor. The absence of that microscope is telling.

“We’re spending $27 million to buy a drill from a friend of the political boss, yet Bustamante, the only children’s hospital in the country, has no CT scan machine. If my granddaughter, or grandson, or your grandson, or your granddaughter, or the children of our people get sick and have to be rushed to Bustamante, they have to be moved to somewhere like KPH [Kingston Public Hospital], UHWI [University Hospital of the West Indies] to do a CT scan. That time of movement is valuable. It’s the difference between life and death,” charged Brown.

He told his colleagues in the Upper House that, “It hurt me, it bun me to see how we are wasting taxpayers’ money and fattening our friends.

“I call again on the Integrity Commission to investigate. I know they [the Administration] are going to tell us, ‘Oh, we followed the procurement rules,’ but did Jamaican taxpayers get value for money?… Why are we paying US$170,000 for what we could pay between US$14,000 and US$50,000? It’s not right,” he quipped.

Brown challened the Government to refute his claims.

“Bring the bill and receipt come and tell me yuh never pay $27 million for it. Bring the bill come! I dare you all, bring that bill come. Because if you don’t, I’m going to formally ask questions in this Senate for which you will have 21 days to answer,” declared Brown.

— Alecia Smith