A major public procurement scandal has erupted at Trinidad and Tobago’s North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA), with an internal investigation underway into claims that former chief executive officer Anthony Blake signed an unauthorized $91.5 million security services contract with private firm SWAT Estate Police Co Ltd months before the official competitive bidding process even launched.
The controversial document, dated December 19, 2025, bears what investigators confirm is Blake’s signature alongside a witness signature from a sitting NWRHA employee, according to materials obtained exclusively by the Sunday Express. Critical red flags have already emerged: the signed agreement dates nearly two full months before the NWRHA published its official public tender notice for organization-wide security services in February 2026. The open bidding process, labeled Tender No. 2026-20, closed on March 4 that year, with no award finalized to date.
Blake, who is currently on extended leave from the authority, has forcefully pushed back against all allegations of misconduct, framing the entire controversy as a misrepresentation of disjointed administrative documents pulled out of context. In an interview with the Sunday Express, Blake claimed the only document he signed connected to SWAT was a small, fully compliant interim contract worth just $717,342.75, awarded after the original security contractor for seven NWRHA-run health centers abruptly pulled out of its obligations in October 2025.
Per Blake’s account, the interim award followed standard internal procurement protocols that required collecting quotes from the authority’s pre-vetted existing security providers, with SWAT selected as the temporary replacement. He further explained that the $91.5 million figure cited by accusers is nothing more than a multi-year estimated budget projection for a planned organization-wide security overhaul, compiled for internal funding verification purposes rather than a binding contract. He added that the full project was designed to award contracts to multiple providers, matching the NWRHA’s long-standing operational model, and the 2026 public tender remains under review by the national Procurement Disposal Advisory Committee with no final decision made.
But acting NWRHA CEO Judith Balliram has outright rejected Blake’s account, confirming the controversy stemmed from a formal whistleblower complaint submitted to the NWRHA board several months prior. Balliram emphasized that the signed agreement in question explicitly names SWAT as the sole recipient of the $91.5 million two-year contract for all NWRHA facilities, with no planned inclusion of additional providers. She noted that even the formal funding request for the project was not submitted until January 9, 2026, three weeks after Blake allegedly signed the binding contract, and the agreement never received the mandatory approval from the NWRHA board required for contracts of that size. Under national public procurement law, Balliram stressed, the executed contract is unlawful on its face.
Adding another layer to the scandal, Balliram confirmed that after the whistleblower brought the contract to light, NWRHA officials launched an internal search for the original document — only to discover it has gone missing. She alleged the contract may have been destroyed by a senior NWRHA employee in an effort to cover up the unauthorized action. A senior anonymous source within the authority further corroborated the whistleblower’s claims to the Sunday Express, confirming the signed agreement was structured as a full, organization-wide security contract exclusively for SWAT, and that preliminary banking documentation for the contract had already been completed before the discrepancy was uncovered.
The NWRHA’s internal investigation is currently ongoing, with authorities reviewing all related administrative and financial records to determine what action, if any, will be taken once the probe is complete.