Southeast Regional Health Authority Says It Never Asked For Shaggy’s Foundation To Turn Over Money To Gov’t
The Southeast Regional Health Authority (SERHA) has issued a statement outlining that neither the Bustamante Hospital for Children nor the agency itself requested that the $100 million raised by the Shaggy and Friends Foundation for the health facility be handed over to the Government.
The statement, which the SERHA said was aimed at clearing up the matter, was issued on Tuesday evening after news reports surfaced that Shaggy had said that his foundation “never gives money to Government.”
“Now, the whole thing about turning over money to Government. We were never that organization. If you look at our model from day one we never turn cash over to government…. That conversation should be thrown out. We never give money to government. That is not the model of Shaggy and friends. Point blank!” the Boombastic singer had said on Monday in an interview with journalists.
The SERHA release, which was shared on the agency’s Instagram page noted that it: “would like to clarify statements made in the media by Orville Burrell (Shaggy)” and then went on to note that “neither the hospital nor Regional Health Authority requested that money raised be handed over to the Government by the Shaggy and Friends Foundation, as is being purported.”
According to SERHA, its only concern “was always, that having raised these funds in the name of the Bustamante Hospital for Children, with the full support and endorsement of the institution, and the hundreds of volunteers and patrons who supported the initiative, that funds be used to support improvement in services to patients who use the hospital”.
Noting that it was “encouraged” by a meeting held on Monday, between the respective representatives, the SERHA said a way forward has been “devised between the Shaggy and Friends Foundation and the Chairman of the hospital management committee of the BHC and SERHA,” but that it was hoping for the issue to be settled amicably, in the best interest of the hospital and the children.
“The Regional Authority makes no judgement on the reasons for the long delay, but at the same time feels strongly that the needs of the hospital and the children are best served through a speedy resolution of this matter…,” it said.
On Monday, the Gleaner had reported that Minister of Health, Dr Christopher Tufton had expressed disappointment that the $100 million raised from a 2018 benefit concert by the SMADF, which is operated Shaggy and his wife, Rebecca Packer, remained in limbo, as the project was put on hold because of a lack of designated space.
According to the Gleaner, Tufton had said in an interview last week that: “the kind of suspense of not knowing what is happening is a disappointment from the perspective of the persons who are expected to benefit from it.”
“I do believe that we should have advanced the process more than it is now, and ultimately, it is about the children, and while I believe that all (members of the SMADF) have good intentions- I have no reason to doubt the genuineness and sincerity of the intentions ultimately – the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the eating has to be the children at Bustamante,” Tufton was quoted as saying.
Additionally, the Minister had said that he had been in dialogue with Bustamante Hospital Chairman, Kenneth Benjamin, and had directed him to manage the process to ensure accountability and transparency.
According to The Gleaner, Benjamin has said that he, too, was disheartened about the delay and that he had made a request for funds to be redeployed to purchase equipment for proposed new wards, as a cardiac ward – outfitted with five ICUs – was already built at the hospital through a partnership with the Heart Foundation and other stakeholders after the SMADF commitment was made.
Benjamin said he had informed the Foundation that there was no longer a need for the intensive care beds and requested that the funds, which are in an interest-generating bank account, be re-routed towards to the construction of a new facility to house parents waiting for their children to get treatment.
“They were supposed to go and get amendments done to that relief of taxes that was specifically for those units. She (Rebecca) said she’d have to go back to them and amend it, and it’s a couple years now, and nothing has happened,” Benjamin had told The Gleaner.
However, Packer, according to The Gleaner, had insisted that the funds would exclusively go to the project for which it was initially earmarked, while reiterating that redirecting the funds to another cause would contravene the provisions of Section 30 the Charity Act, which prohibits organisations with charity status from diverting donations made for specific causes to other purposes.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about. All I know is we are moving forward with what was promised, which was five ICU beds. We are continuing with that mandate and that’s what is happening. I don’t know what other information you got, but that’s what it is,” Packer was quoted as saying in reference to the statements made by Benjamin.
In the Gleaner’s interview with Dr. Tufton, he had also acknowledged that collaborations of the nature of SMADF, were sometimes hampered by mistrust over whether donations would be channelled towards intended purposes.
Tufton had also said that while he admired the SMADF’s efforts, he was cognizant that sometimes there is “hesitancy around how resources are used to ensure the purpose for which those resources were raised”.
“There may be doubts, but my position has been, if there are doubts, let us bring in the honest brokers or expand the team to ensure that the real benefits of the effort go to the children… I don’t know that one can be so inflexible, that there is no room for adjustment and manoeuvring…,” the health minister had said.