Aug. 1, 2008 — Two of Schneider Regional Medical Center's top executives — Chief Executive Officer Amos Carty Jr. and Chief Financial Officer Peter Najawicz — will be placed on paid leave while allegations of financial mismanagement raised in a joint local and federal audit are investigated, Gov. John deJongh Jr. said Friday.
DeJongh's announcement, made during a press conference on St. Thomas, came a day after Carty announced that the governor had also called for the resignation of four members of the hospital's governing board: June Adams, Beverly Chongasing, attorney Francis Jackson and Natalie Thomas. Government House representatives confirmed Friday that board member Doradean Williams was also asked to resign.
All five — who were on the board during the period of time covered in the audit — have already submitted their resignations, deJongh said during the press conference. Having a "clean break" in the wake of findings released in the audit would be the best way to "create a new future" for the medical center, Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute and Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center on St. John, he said.
"The results of this audit cannot be minimized or deflected in any way," deJongh said. "Its findings are beyond troubling, and indeed they have triggered the predictable, and required, criminal investigations which are now ongoing by the V.I. Department of Justice."
Meanwhile, to fill the board's new vacancies, deJongh has nominated Dilsa Capdeville, founder of Kid Scope; attorney Maria Tankenson-Hodge; Vincent Samuel, chief executive officer for the University of the Virgin Islands; Miles Stair, who will represent St. John; and Cornel Williams, president of St. Thomas-based International Capital and Management. Members of the Legislature have said they would work quickly to act on the nominations, the governor added.
In the interim, the board of directors of the Hospital and Health Facilities Corp. — a 15-member body that oversees the operations of the territory's medical facilities — will run the show, deJongh said. Since public funds are used to cover personnel costs and certain other expenses for both of the territory's hospitals, three government representatives have spots on the board: Finance Commissioner Claudette Watson-Anderson, Office of Management and Budget Director Debra Gottlieb and Property and Procurement Commissioner Lynn Millin. Health Commissioner Vivian I. Ebbesen-Fludd currently serves as an ex-officio member, deJongh said.
Six members from each of the hospitals' district governing boards round out the group, chaired by Carmelo Rivera.
"I intend to be an active and full partner with the hospital and Health Facilities Corp., and with the St. Thomas-St. John district board when that board is reconstituted," deJongh said. "As the chief executive in the territory and on behalf of our residents, I will not be a silent partner. The health care of our people is too important, honesty and transparency in government is too important and the fiduciary care required when spending public money is too important."
The three cabinet members have been told to start immediately the process of putting Carty and Najawicz on leave pending "a full, fair and comprehensive review of all the issues and concerns raised" by the audit report — and other areas that require investigation, deJongh said.
A public meeting of the corporation's board of directors is scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 8, at the V.I. Port Authority headquarters on St. Thomas.
While the board works on temporarily filling the two positions, operations and the quality of health-care services offered at Schneider Regional, CKCI and Myrah Keating will remain the same, deJongh added.
"The dedicated and extraordinary caregivers at those medical institutions know what they are doing, and they perform their jobs very well," he said. "But what they, and indeed everyone in this community deserves — and what I demand — is that our hospitals and clinics must be free from corruption and waste, free from scandal and that the executives of these facilities are also free from suspicion of such."
The audit, a joint effort by the Offices of the Inspectors General of the Department of the Interior and the Virgin Islands, revealed that hospital executives — including former Chief Executive Officer Rodney E. Miller Sr. — received hefty compensation packages, which were approved by board members. At the end of his five years at the helm of the hospital, Miller had allegedly racked up close to $3.8 million in salary and associated perks, while Carty and Najawicz were receiving thousands more than the $80,000 salaries included in their notices of personnel action — documents that show, among other things, what government employees were paid.
The hospital's board approved the packages, the report said, and deliberately withheld documents and other information from investigators while the audit was going on. (See "Audit Claims Widespread Abuse of Schneider Hospital Funds.")
"What troubles me even more than the specific items noted in the audit … was the absence of commitment on the part of this board to my administration's goal of maximizing openness and transparency throughout our government," deJongh said Friday. "When it comes to the spending of the people's money, we are, and can only be, one government. There can be no accountability without openness and transparency. And without accountability, we cannot earn the public's trust."
A criminal investigations triggered by the audit's findings has been ongoing for the past year, according to Attorney General Vincent Frazer.
Hospital executives continue to work with the Justice Department in providing information, Carty said in a statement issued Friday evening. Carty added that he looks forward to welcoming and working with the new hospital board members.
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