Finance director Carlos Perrera refutes allegations at inquiry

The Finance Director of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, Carlos Perrera, whose name has been called numerous times during the ongoing Commission of Inquiry, took his seat today before the commissioners. Perrera was one of the persons that doctors and nurses had been insisting needed to be removed from duties when the scandal broke in June. The inquiry is tasked with investigating allegations of improprieties and the purchasing practices between January 2007 and June 2009. In one instance, despite previous testimonies that claimed Perrera instructed his staff to purchase meats and fish from Gillett’s Meat Shop in Orange Walk, Perrera said this was not so. Perrera also denied that he discontinued the purchase of vegetables from Julian Chell for political reasons. Last week Chell testified that Perrera gave an order to stop buying vegetables from him even though his prices were comparatively cheaper.

Justice Adolph Lucas, Chief Commissioner
“Do you know a person by the name of Julian Chell?”

Carlos Perrera, Director of Finance, K.H.M.H.
“Not to my recollection, I remember that he was a supplier at the K.H.M.H. at one point in time.”

Justice Adolph Lucas
“This is where he knows you. “I know Mr. Perrera because he is a political guy in Orange Walk. He ran for the Orange Walk Town Board.” This is mild hostility. “I did not vote for him.”

Carlos Perrera
“(Laughs) I apologize for laughing. What I did was standardize the process and have every single purchase in that particular area be done as every other purchase that we do with pharmaceutical supplies, medical supplies, maintenance supplies and so forth. We needed to standardize the process like I said. There were a lot of weaknesses within the Karl Heusner and those were some of the areas that we looked at.”