[ 2014-10-21 ]

Audit report orders 3 top ex-Korle-Bu officials to refund GH¢966,000
An interim report on the 2014 expenditure accounts
of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has made
allegations of infraction against the former board
and the management of the hospital.

The Ghana Audit Service, which conducted the
audit, recommended that a number of individuals be
made to refund amounts of money totalling about
GH¢966,116.97 to the hospital.

The service has also written to the acting chief
administrator of the hospital to produce answers
to queries raised in the audit.

The report tackled issues concerning procurement,
cash management, payroll, project management,
transport management, management/governance issues
and revenue accounts.

Among the specifics, the report touched on
irregular allowances paid to the special assistant
to Rev Albert Botchway, the then acting Chief
Administrator.

According to the report, on April 3, 2014, the
then Board Chairman of Korle Bu, Mr Edward Annan,
by a letter, informed the Deputy Director of
Administration and Special Assistant to the acting
Chief Administrator, Mrs Cynthia Boateng, of the
board's decision to let her attend board meetings,
as a result of which GHc6,300 was paid to her as
sitting allowance.

"We found this arrangement anomalous, since the
Korle Bu Board already has a substantive board
secretary," it said, and described the amount paid
to her as a waste.

Cash management
In one case, which caused a loss of GH¢118,461.04
to the hospital, the board was accused of the
irregular appointment of Mr Godfred Ahianyo, a
non-executive member of the board, as the head of
a three-member committee to audit various
processes of some of the officials of the hospital
for a period of one year, effective December 1,
2012.

In the opinion of the auditors, the appointment of
and subsequent payments to Mr Ahianyo were fraught
with problems, including the lack of clear terms
of reference for the work and the failure of the
board to disclose the other members of the
committee.

Besides, the position to which Mr Ahianyo was
appointed was non-existent in the administrative
set up of the hospital, while there was no
evidence of any work done by him to deserve the
amount paid to him.

It recommended that the amount be "recovered
immediately", failure of which Mr Annan and Rev
Botchway should be held liable for the payment.

There was also a query on cash management
involving the payment of unapproved board sitting
allowances amounting to GHc67,577.75.

In that case, the report mentioned how the Korle
Bu Board had, on May 2014, unilaterally increased
members' sitting allowances from GH¢1,500 to
GH¢2,000 for the chairman and from GH¢1,000 to
GH¢1,500 for other members, without approval from
the ministers of Health and Finance, as required
by law.

Consequently, the report declared the payments
made as illegal and recommended that the money be
refunded. It also advised the board to stop the
continued payment of the new rates until they were
formally approved.

Another case of cash management mentioned in the
report centred on a retirement package of
GH¢51,096.74 paid to the former acting Chief
Administrator, Prof. Efua Hesse.

The auditors said the board side-stepped the laws
that required the Finance Minister's approval
before such payments could be affected.

Prof. Hesse, who was the Medical Director of the
hospital and acted as chief administrator for nine
months and retired in September 2013, was paid a
monetary "farewell package" of GH¢51,096.74.

In addition, the report said, her official
vehicle, a VW Passat procured in 2011 by the
hospital at a cost of GH¢44,078, was given to her
as gratis.

Curiously, the report added that although Prof.
Hesse had earlier entered into an agreement with
the hospital to purchase the vehicle and gone
ahead to make an upfront payment of GH¢14,688.96,
the amount was refunded to her, making her take
the vehicle for free.

It recommended that the management of the hospital
recover the GH¢51,096.74, recall the vehicle for
proper valuation and make Prof Hesse to pay for
it.

There was another case of cash management in which
the report mentioned the payment of GH¢53,726.38
to Joyce Awuah of the Procurement Unit in respect
of House Officers' Bills for April 2014.

"Critical examination of the voucher indicated
that only GH¢10,688.50 was accounted for, leaving
GH¢43,039.88 yet to be accounted for," it said,
and recommended that the Director of Finance get
the officer to refund the remaining amount.

Procurement
In the case of the procurement of a brand new Audi
A6 Luxury saloon vehicle valued at GHc199,000 for
Rev Botchway, the report said, "The purchase was
fraught with irregularities."

It mentioned one of the irregularities as "no
evidence of approval of the hospital board for the
acquisition".

Again, the acquisition did not go through any
tender process, while the 2014 approved budget of
the hospital did not provide for the acquisition
of a vehicle for the chief executive.

The report also raised issue with the appointment
of Rev Botchway as the acting Chief Administrator
of Korle Bu.

It said his role as acting chief administrator was
illegitimate and, therefore, undeserving of
payments of salaries and allowances totaling
GHc81,669.82.

"We insist that Rev Botchway produce his
appointment letter for review. In the event that
he is unable to produce an appointment letter,
management should recover all allowances and
salaries paid to him," it said.

Botchway
When contacted Rev. Botchway rubbished the
allegations made against him in the Audit Report,
saying they were only an attempt to soil his
hard-won reputation and cover up the activities of
a cabal that was milking the hospital's finances
dry.

He wondered how an audit of such nature would be
carried out without inviting him to answer
specific questions, adding " they are forcing to
create stories about me.

"They did a silent audit on me and I know the
truth will surely come out one day," he told the
Daily Graphic.

0n the Audi vehicle that was purchased for him for
instance, the former acting Korle-Bu boss said as
far as he knew, it was a decision of the board and
it went through due procurement process.

Responding to the allegation that his appointment
as acting chief administrator was illegitimate
because he was not given an official appointment
letter, he said whoever conducted the audit was
being mischievous.

On another finding that a wrongful payment of
responsibility allowance of GH¢3,611.32 was made
to a former Director of Finance of the hospital,
Rev. Botchway said he never signed any document to
that effect.

Annan
Mr Edward Annan on the other hand expressed
surprise about an audit undertaken in a year that
had not ended.

He said if it was an external audit, then that
would be handled by the Auditor-General, adding
that normally, a person to be audited would be
called for a pre-audit discussion and after the
audit had been completed, a post-audit discussion
would be held.

That, he said, was to provide the persons involved
the opportunity to know what was being audited and
for them to make the necessary input.

“I don’t know anything at all about an audit.
If it is real and authentic it means that the
Auditor-General is in charge, get back to him and
tell him to write to me and invite me to his
office and I will tell the whole country what
happened. I don’t have anything to hide”, he
said.

Prof. Hesse
For her part, Prof Afua Hesse said the interim
report should have gone through a due process but
that was not done.

In any case, she said, she was not a member of the
board of the hospital and could not have been
privy to their decisions.

She said any adverse findings in the interim
report should be addressed to the board of the
hospital.

“I am not happy the way things are going. They
are just scandalising people. Some people are just
sitting somewhere and trying to portray that
something bad has been done. It is not fair. I
have served this country for more than three
decades and this should not be happening to me”,
she said.

Source - Daily Graphic

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