Jamaica’s parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has launched a deeper investigation into operational irregularities at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), moving to summon three key current and former leaders of the institution to answer for red flags raised in a critical Auditor General performance audit.
The decision to call in the witnesses was formalized at the opening of the PAC’s weekly sitting on Tuesday, as committee members continued their review of the audit, which focused on three high-stakes areas of UHWI operations: procurement practices, institutional governance, and financial management.
PAC Chairman Julian Robinson told fellow committee members that ongoing inquiry had already made one fact clear: the UHWI’s current sitting management team does not have the ability to provide satisfactory responses to a host of critical questions outlined in the Auditor General’s December 2025 report.
“From our first meeting two weeks ago, it has been apparent to me that the current management of the university hospital is not positioned to answer many of our questions related to the facility’s day-to-day and strategic operations,” Robinson explained in remarks to the committee. “I am seeking this body’s approval to summon current CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell—who is currently on leave—former CEO Kevin Allen, and ex-board chairman Wayne Chai Chong, so we can get clear answers to the outstanding questions we have about this institution.”
Mitchell, the UHWI’s sitting chief executive, has already been on approved leave since the public scrutiny of the hospital’s operations began. Allen led the facility’s operations in his tenure as the top executive, while Chai Chong oversaw the UHWI’s board and held ultimate governance and oversight responsibility during his time as chairman.
The committee unanimously backed Robinson’s proposal, and parliamentary staff have already been instructed to draft and deliver formal summons letters to all three individuals ahead of the next scheduled PAC probe session.
The damning Auditor General report, which was formally tabled in Jamaica’s parliament in December 2025, outlined a series of severe deficiencies across UHWI’s operational framework. Among the most pressing concerns highlighted in the audit are dysfunctional and high-risk procurement systems, gaping weaknesses in internal financial controls, missing or incomplete documentation for major transactions, and repeated, documented breaches of the government’s established public institutional operating procedures.