RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Se­nior Re­porter

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt

A group of lo­cal doc­tors is call­ing for fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy from the Med­ical Coun­cil of the Med­ical Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go (MBTT) fol­low­ing al­le­ga­tions of ex­trav­a­gant spend­ing and funds un­ac­count­ed for.

The Doc­tors’ Ethics and Au­ton­o­my Lob­by (DEAL) has filed a for­mal Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act (FOIA) re­quest, seek­ing ac­cess to the board’s fi­nan­cial records, in­clud­ing de­tails on “lav­ish events and un­ap­proved ex­pen­di­tures.”

DEAL claims the coun­cil has been op­er­at­ing with­out prop­er over­sight de­spite man­ag­ing as­sets worth $37 mil­lion—funds sourced en­tire­ly from mem­ber­ship fees.

Dr Ra­jiv Seereer­am, a lead­ing mem­ber of DEAL, voiced con­cern over the lack of trans­paren­cy.

“The coun­cil has failed to pro­vide au­dit­ed fi­nan­cials for sev­er­al terms,” Seereer­am stat­ed, high­light­ing cost­ly events such as a 2023 In­duc­tion Cer­e­mo­ny at the Hy­att Re­gency, a re­treat at Mag­dale­na Grand, and a con­fer­ence in Bali.

“We’re not against gath­er­ings, but these are ex­trav­a­gant for a reg­u­la­to­ry body,” he added. DEAL al­leged that the coun­cil’s spend­ing is “reck­less and lacks ac­count­abil­i­ty.”

In ad­di­tion to the FOIA re­quest, DEAL has called for the im­me­di­ate sus­pen­sion of non-es­sen­tial spend­ing un­til full fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy is achieved.

DEAL said a plan of ex­pen­di­ture or bud­get for up­com­ing events must be pre­sent­ed by the coun­cil for pri­or ap­proval. They are al­so urg­ing all mem­bers of the med­ical com­mu­ni­ty to de­mand greater ac­count­abil­i­ty from the coun­cil.

“Doc­tors de­serve to know where their mon­ey is go­ing,” Seereer­am in­sist­ed.

The sit­u­a­tion is com­pound­ed by the coun­cil’s push for amend­ments to the Med­ical Board Act, which could re­duce fi­nan­cial over­sight and ex­empt the coun­cil from li­a­bil­i­ty.

Seereer­am de­scribed the move as a “be­tray­al of trust” and crit­i­cised the board for fail­ing to pro­vide ba­sic fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy.

The pro­fes­sion is fac­ing its own cri­sis, with many doc­tors un­em­ployed or work­ing on short-term con­tracts.

“There are hun­dreds of young doc­tors work­ing on three-week con­tracts, while oth­ers re­main un­em­ployed,” Seereer­am not­ed.

DEAL’s de­mands for trans­paren­cy in­clude au­dit­ed fi­nan­cials, cred­it card state­ments, and bud­gets for the MBTT’s re­cent events, but their re­quests have gone unan­swered.

“How can we trust a coun­cil that re­fus­es to dis­close how it spends doc­tors’ con­tri­bu­tions?” Seereer­am asked.

Fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the mat­ter is a sep­a­rate FOIA re­quest filed by at­tor­ney Ri­ad J Ram­saran on be­half of a client, seek­ing fi­nan­cial records from the MBTT.

“This isn’t just about DEAL. Oth­ers are al­so ques­tion­ing how the Coun­cil is man­ag­ing its funds,” Seereer­am said.

MBTT pres­i­dent: Foren­sic au­dit on­go­ing; we are com­mit­ted to ac­count­abil­i­ty

As pres­sure mounts, MBTT pres­i­dent Dr Neil Singh con­firmed the or­gan­i­sa­tion was un­der­go­ing a com­pre­hen­sive foren­sic au­dit cov­er­ing the past five years.

“This is the first time in the board’s his­to­ry that we’re con­duct­ing a foren­sic au­dit,” Singh ex­plained, clar­i­fy­ing that the board’s fund­ing comes from an­nu­al re­ten­tion fees paid by doc­tors.

He em­pha­sised that spend­ing was fo­cused on ac­tiv­i­ties di­rect­ly re­lat­ed to the reg­u­la­tion of doc­tors. Singh as­sured that the coun­cil was com­mit­ted to fi­nan­cial ac­count­abil­i­ty and pre­sent­ed an­nu­al fi­nan­cial state­ments at its AGMs, as re­quired by the Med­ical Board Act.

In re­sponse to DEAL’s con­cerns, Singh out­lined sev­er­al re­forms, in­clud­ing the hir­ing of a gen­er­al man­ag­er and an ac­coun­tant to im­prove fi­nan­cial over­sight.

Singh al­so not­ed the coun­cil’s on­go­ing ef­forts to en­hance com­mu­ni­ca­tion with its mem­bers.

He said a new web­site is un­der de­vel­op­ment to in­crease trans­paren­cy, and non-coun­cil board mem­bers are ac­tive­ly in­te­grat­ed in­to sub-com­mit­tees.

“We’re work­ing on im­prov­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion and trans­paren­cy,” he said, men­tion­ing the fre­quen­cy of spe­cial gen­er­al meet­ings and con­sul­ta­tions held this year.

Singh ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the on­go­ing re­forms would re­store trust in the MBTT and the au­dit would lead to a more trans­par­ent and ef­fi­cient or­gan­i­sa­tion.

While the re­forms are un­der­way, DEAL and many in the med­ical com­mu­ni­ty re­main vig­i­lant, press­ing for im­me­di­ate ac­tion. “This isn’t just about fi­nances—it’s about trust, and right now, the coun­cil has bro­ken that trust,” Seereer­am added.