By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

CANCER Centre of the Bahamas managing director Dr Arthur Porter is not currently engaged with the Ministry of Health, a senior official confirmed yesterday.

In response to concerns over the embattled scientist’s relationship with the government, the official explained that Dr Porter was only contracted to lead the national task force on stem cell therapy.

Concerns were raised over allegations surrounding Dr Porter’s business ventures, and tenure and resignation from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Canada.

The government-appointed team presented recommendations on stem cell research and therapy last month.

At the presentation, Dr Porter said the “groundbreaking” science had the potential to jump-start a more than $100 million medical tourism industry.

Last month, the Quebec government released the results of an audit that found the MUHC’s planned deficit of $12-million ballooned to $115-million, and has now been assigned a special overseer to monitor its spending. Dr Porter resigned as the chief executive of the hospital network in 2011.

Quebec’s anti-corruption task force are investigating fraud at the hospital network in connection with its planned $1.3 billion super-hospital, which was executed during Dr Porter’s tenure.

In November, police charged two former executives at SNC-Lavalin, the engineering firm that was awarded the contract, with multiple criminal charges, including fraud and using falsified documents.

Media reports indicate that investigators have seized documents belonging to Dr Porter as part of the probe.

In an interview with The Tribune, Dr Porter denied any culpability for the centre’s precarious financial state.

No charges have been filed against Dr Porter.

Dr Porter is principally responsible for the Cancer Centre of the Bahamas becoming the only American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO)-accredited Centre in the Caribbean and this hemisphere outside of North America. Opened in 2004, the centre, which provides comprehensive oncology services, received its second accreditation in 2010.