According to Opposition spokesmen, including Leader of the Justice For All party, Mr. C.N. Sharma, Dr. Ramsammy had encouraged the Chief Executive Officer at the GPHC Mr. Michael Khan to sell his personal furniture to the corporation and that the minister had taken cash for himself from the Ministry of Health, other than provided for, under Public Service rules.

It was also alleged that the minister collected a chauffeur allowance from Parliament, although his driver was on the GPHC payroll.

In an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), the minister said he had been informed more than once of persons at the hospital engaging in financial irregularities but has on each occasion, requested explanations from the individuals.

"In the case of these irregularities I received explanations that I accepted. It does not mean that I did not see the need for correction of the way things are done. I asked in some cases for corrections to be made and I referred the cases to the GPHC Board", he said.

He noted that the Board has taken action where necessary and should it need help from the ministry, it will contact the Government entity.

However, he said, to date no request for further action has been forthcoming from the Board.

Responding to the allegations made against him, Ramsammy said this was money owed him by employees who were awaiting payment of salaries.

Specific salary advances, the minister said, were never made to him, but he used his personal pay cheques from the ministry to pay persons who did work for the ministry because they were not paid, and other staffers who requested salary advances.

On one occasion he requested that an advance, which he had made to an employee be repaid to him, because he had a personal expense, he said.

"Time and again people come to me as happens in other agencies, asking for an advance in salary and sometimes depending on the circumstances, through the formal system we make advances. Also, sometimes people are hired and the paper work takes a while. It is not unusual in the public sector for somebody to start working today but not getting their first salary three months later.

"Often these persons would come and ask that even though they cannot have their full salaries, could they have some financial support while the bureaucracy works its way through.

"Sometimes I am forced to assist people through my own pocket because it is not possible to go through the formal system," he explained.

The Health Minister said he has lent his money in two particular cases to persons in the hospital's employ and has requested that the hospital repay him the money.

"The persons who had received this money had left the jobs because they could not wait any longer for their salaries, and hence the minister had to meet the payments, as he could not have taken back his monies from the two persons.

"So whilst one could make charges that these are not proper things, to put it in context, it is the minister who lost out in the end, because these are payments that were made by me that were never recovered. Hopefully one day the sector would get its act together and pay the people on a timely basis so that I could get my money back," he asserted.

The minister said he also used his money to pay a pathologist the ministry used to perform post mortem on Police cases and to date the doctor has not been paid, so the ministry will also have to reimburse his money whenever the pathologist is paid.

Commenting on the issue of the chauffeur allowance, Ramsammy explained that the driver at the Ministry of Health does not work a regular 40-hour week, and hence the allowance provided by Parliament is inadequate.

He noted that the Ministry of Health should have been able to provide him with a support driver, but this was not possible because the ministry itself is short of drivers.

"We start out here early, work until late at night and almost every week we are out of town, which necessitates people staying overnight and so on. My driver starts working about 06:00 hrs, seven days a week.

"We are talking about a driver who works about 100 hours a week and they are also away from home. The allowance we get through Parliament only covers a 40-hour week. We had requested help from the GPHC. So he is on that payroll," he said.

According to Ramsammy, for the past few months he has not been receiving allowances from Parliament and this necessitates him acting as driver.

"Any indication of double dipping is a false notion. We are just simply responding to our needs," he said.

Although the GPHC is a subvention agency from the ministry, the Ministry of Health still has overall responsibility for its functioning, he said, adding that it is regular procedure for any staff member of the GPHC to be seconded to another public health institution.

"We utilise the GPHC to provide support to the Public Health Sector. For example, there are nurses that are at the health centres who are on the hospital's payroll. There are also doctors and security guards," he explained.

He pointed to a current case where the Director of Regional Services at the ministry, Mr. Umdat Khemdat is on leave and a doctor at the GPHC has to fill in until he returns in February next year.

"I do not need to be stealing $20,000 a month; it is ridiculous to think that I am stealing this. I am doing my job.

"I am working very hard for the small salary, which is more than the PNC can say. They do take salaries that they do not earn. They take salaries from Parliament and they do not attend Parliament," he said.

About the GPHC CEO selling his furniture to the hospital, Ramsammy acknowledged that it is not in keeping with appropriate financial practices and said this has been communicated to Khan.

Khan was also ordered to repay the money, which he did and also lost money, as he was asked to stay home pending the investigation into the matter launched by the Board and subsequently, the Auditor General, he said. In addition, the items were not returned to Khan, he said.

Ramsammy said the CEO sold his furniture to the corporation for the doctors' quarters to facilitate easy accommodation for a doctor who needed to occupy the place.