A sprawling public corruption investigation is unfolding at Jamaica’s sole teaching hospital, with multiple state agencies pursuing probes into widespread procurement breaches and unauthorized use of the institution’s tax-exempt status that has cost the country millions in lost revenue. The Major Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) has confirmed it is on track to collect testimonial statements from current University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) staff this week as law enforcement ramps up its inquiry into procurement irregularities that have drained millions from the public institution.
Parallel to the criminal investigation, Jamaica’s Integrity Commission (IC) has launched its own separate inquiry into a long-running scheme where hospital leadership routinely granted private firms illegal access to UHWI’s government-granted tax-exempt import status. That scheme alone has drained more than $20 million in uncollected revenue from Jamaica Customs, according to official disclosures.
Details of the multi-pronged probe were brought to light Tuesday when Eric Hosin, UHWI’s acting chief executive officer, testified before the country’s Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a legislative oversight body that is also conducting its own review of the scandal. Hosin told the committee that hospital administration has formally reported the misuse of tax-exempt privileges to MOCA, the national police fraud unit, and the Jamaica Customs Agency. “We’re cooperating fully with those agencies and remain in open dialogue with their representatives in order to recover the revenue lost to the Government of Jamaica,” Hosin told the committee.
Hosin confirmed that MOCA has formally requested written statements from a group of current UHWI employees, with submissions expected to be finalized by the end of this week. The acting CEO also told lawmakers that Jamaica Customs has already wrapped up its investigation into one of the four private firms that exploited the tax-exempt status, JACDEN Limited, and that hospital officials are waiting for results of probes into the remaining three companies. Under questioning from PAC members, Hosin publicly named the three previously undisclosed companies: Supreme Laundry Services, Willman Sales, and Scientific Medical Services.
Prior to Hosin’s testimony, only JACDEN Limited had been identified publicly. The firm is led by Dennis Gordon, who serves as an Opposition Member of Parliament for the St Andrew East Central constituency, and benefited from the scheme by importing dialysis machines through UHWI’s tax-exempt status. Beyond the lost customs revenue, Auditor General’s Department (AGD) investigators uncovered that UHWI often purchased the same imported goods back from the private firms at marked-up prices, costing the public hospital millions in unnecessary overspending. Hosin confirmed that because UHWI is the entity listed as the tax-exempt importer on all paperwork, the hospital is legally liable to Jamaica Customs for millions in unpaid fees and charges.
The IC, Jamaica’s independent anti-corruption oversight body, has already seized key evidence related to the scandal. Hosin told the committee that IC investigators visited UHWI’s headquarters and took custody of all documents tied to the misuse of tax-exempt privileges, as well as procurement records for civil works projects flagged for irregularities by the AGD. Hospital leadership is now waiting for the commission to release its official findings. Hosin added that UHWI has already ended the problematic practices that allowed the scheme to continue for years. The hospital has discontinued the routine practice of approving procurement processes after goods and services have already been delivered, cut off all arrangements that allowed private entities to bypass public procurement guidelines, and blocked private firms from accessing the institution’s tax-exempt status moving forward. He repeatedly emphasized that hospital administration fully accepts all findings laid out in the AGD’s audit.
The AGD’s public audit report, released on January 13, flagged a wide range of systemic failures that allowed the scandal to unfold. Beyond the tax abuse scheme, auditors found pervasive breaches of public contracting rules across UHWI’s procurement operations. The combined impact of the irregularities has potentially cost Jamaican taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in total losses. The audit found that UHWI suffers from “considerable deficiencies in governance, procurement, and contract management processes.” Auditors warned that if these gaps are not remedied, they will continue to create elevated corruption risks and erode the hospital’s ability to deliver high-quality healthcare services to Jamaican patients.