Dr Alfred Dawes, shadow minister of health, is renewing his call for a comprehensive review of the contract between the health ministry and The Phoenix Partnership (TPP).

This comes after TPP’s owner, Frank Hester, made abusive remarks directed at UK Member of Parliament Diane Abbott, who is of Jamaican heritage.

The health ministry has since condemned the racist comments aimed at Abbott, calling for the appropriate measures to be taken within the firm to hold Hester accountable.

However, Dawes said the matter has not been addressed with the requisite gravity it deserves.

“The weak press release from the MOHW and the deafening silence of the minister does not sit well with Jamaicans at home and abroad. In addition to being an anaemic response to the subject of Jamaican business being used as a stamp of approval for the racist Hester’s character, the release failed to address the matter of how a Request for Proposals for a USD2.4m contract morphed into the announcement of a USD5 million contract being signed and handed to Hester, after the elimination of other bidders,” Dawes argued.

Regarding the process deviation, Dawes questioned: “On no less than three occasions in a meeting with interested parties, it was minuted that the J$2.4m bid should include all aspects of implementation for a fixed number of facilities for a 3-year period. The country needs to know when and on whose instructions was this changed?”

He further raised concerns about the MOHW’s historical pattern of designing selection criteria to favour certain contractors, potentially leading to conflicts of interest and corruption.

He said without clarification on the substantial deviation in contract value or justification for the RFP’s departure from industry best practices, an enquiry by the Auditor General may be warranted.

The health ministry signed a contract early last year with TPP for the implementation of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) system in Jamaica.

The EHR system is geared towards Jamaica’s transition to a paperless system for patient records and the uploading and sharing of these records among healthcare providers for seamless collaboration in the delivery of healthcare.