Madison Parish Hospital Service District Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Robert Laurents has turned in his letter of resignation this week, underscoring continuing personnel problems at the hospital
In his letter, Laurents wrote he initially came to the hospital service district in 2014 to “assist management clean up all the findings by your Independent CPA Audit Firm and the Legislative Auditor’s Office,” in reference to a time when state officials took over operations of the hospital following both criminal charges against and financial issues on the part of the then-administration.
Laurents went on to state he stayed on with the hospital service district past his initial two-year contract hoping to assist through the completion of new construction; however, he ultimately decided to stay on longer when unavoidable factors - such as the economy and pandemic - delayed progress.
But Laurents also pointed to problems with how the current administration is handing issues, such as personnel, as a reason to step aside.
“Quite frankly, I considered leaving when yo hired back the employee who confessed and admitted to the Public Payroll Fraud, but the Hospital and Clinic were not finished yet, so I stayed,” he wrote, while not specifically naming individuals.
“With the District’s re-hiring of this employee, I personally think that makes the people responsible for the re-hire possibly complicit in the public payroll fraud. I therefore feel I must disassociate myself with the current management of the Hospital and District.”
Laurents’ resignation comes only weeks after two hospital employees were taken into custody by state agents with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit division of the Louisiana Attorney General's office. In early October, Courtney Moberley, 46, and Chasity Isaac, 36, both of Tallulah, were taken into custody and each charged with one count of Medicaid fraud and one count of filing/maintaining false public records.
