Head of KF2 Varshnie Singh yesterday revealed an email she had received from Finance Controller of Frontier Lifeline Hospital PVT, M. Lakshminarayanan, on Thursday last which stated: “Based on your undertaking in Bond on 27th June 09 and the good faith assurance since then, we awaited your full payment until the due date of 26th Dec 09, but in vain.
“We have since been paid with the due amount by the Government of Guyana. As such, we return the following three bankers cheques received by courier on the 5th & 7th of January 2010. The cheques are returned to your following address for necessary cancellation at your end.”
While acknowledging that the payment would have ended a months-long saga, Singh questioned its timing, noting that government had publicly stated several times last year that it had paid the US$78,140.
On June 9, Singh along with 12 children requiring heart surgery and their parents arrived at the Frontier Lifeline Hospital in India based on a five-year verbal agreement that the surgeries would be done and the organization given time to pay for them. However, this time after the children were operated on she was informed that 50 per cent of the bill was required “in advance”. Singh said the total bill was US$83,029 and KF2 had paid a deposit of US$9,312. She said she explained about the credit arrangement. However, when the group was ready to leave on June 26, Dr Cherian with whom she had the verbal arrangement was not in India and she was told to await his return.
When he returned the following day, she said, an agreement was put in writing which gave KF2 six months to pay the remaining sum of US$73,717 along with interest of US$4,423. She told Stabroek News that KF2 had never been required to pay interest before, but she signed the bond and the group left.
It was reported in sections of the press here two days later that Singh and the group had been detained in India and that government had paid an undisclosed sum to have them released. However, on July 15, Singh received an email from the finance controller at the hospital which stated: “… no payment has been received from either Govt of Guyana or the High Commissioner at Delhi… The Govt has mentioned their intention to settle this amount, however, no firm commitment has been given to us.
“There is a communication from Ms Padmini/Leslie Ramsammy Ministry of Health committing for the payment against Bill No.CR00239 dt.27.6.09 in respect of patient Randy Mark Cameron amount to US$8,362. We have not received any other commitment or payment from any other party.”
Singh said she met Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramammy months later and he told her that the bill had been paid. However, he offered no proof of this. She sent a query to India and received a response on November 16, 2009 that no payment had been received from the government. The hospital said it had learned “through the press” that the Guyana government was going to pay the amount owed, but no payment had been sent. The December 26 deadline for payment was fast approaching.
Singh said she had found, when she returned from India in June and began fundraising, that KF2 fundraisers were no longer welcome at certain venues. However, she and her relatives and other volunteers persevered and managed to garner US$40,765.30 through initiatives and donations in Guyana, the US, the UK, Canada, St Maarten and Europe. On December 24, 28 and 30, 2009 KF2 sent three drafts valued US$4,600, US$26,417 and US$9,748.30, which this newspaper has seen, to the hospital and requested additional time to pay the balance. It was in response to this request that she received an email informing that government had finally settled the bill.
KF2 is a not for profit NGO which aims to fund emergency medical treatment for poor and needy children in Guyana. It pays for surgery, air fares, diagnostics: x-rays, CT scans, blood tests, hearing/walking aids, wheelchairs, prosthetics, medicines, eye/hearing tests/aids/glasses and in cases of poverty and malnutrition, it provides food and milk.
KF2 coordinates teams of doctors in the specialties lacking here to come to Guyana and hold free clinics and perform surgery at no cost. It has facilitated plastic surgery, neuro-surgery, neurology, cardiac evaluation, PDA surgery and general surgery.
Its long-term plan is to build a teaching hospital in Guyana.
