Pharmacy Mafia hijacks Korle - Bu Hospital

It has now emerged that a mafia at the Korle -Bu teaching hospital headed by the director of pharmacy Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce are entirely responsible for the chronic problems and instability at the nation's premier teaching hospital.

Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce has been indicted by a recent internal audit report, a copy of which has been cited by this reporter for all the mess at the hospital. According to the report dated 10th Jun 2014 and signed by Stephen Ayeh Perdison, so many fraudulent activities have been taking place at both the 24 hrs pharmacy and the main 'section C' pharmacy for the past couple years.

The audit report, which is yet to be made public, give evidence of drug sales by personal of the pharmacy other than those purchased by 24 hrs pharmacy under the supervision of the head of pharmacy.

It also makes it clear that only 39% of essential drugs are stocked at the hospital's main pharmacy whiles only 48% are at the 24hrs pharmacy. This deliberate under stocking of the pharmacies creates room for illegal private business for the pharmacy staff who supply the surplus drugs.

It also reveals that much of the revenue generated by the main pharmacy as well as the 24hrs pharmacy at Korle -Bu is not sent to the bank but into individual pockets. For example, revenue for 2012 per turn over report in the hospital's accounting software stood at Gh 7343, 524,.37 against revenue banked Gh 7,202,748.07. A difference of Gh 140,776.30 cannot be traced anywhere.

Further reading of the report also exposes a deliberate deletion of accounting information from the hospital's pharmacy records in order to hide financial malfeasance. Sales and purchases records of drugs between February - August 2013 could not be located on the server which is a deliberate attempt to conceal impropriety. It has also come to light that Unknown transactions by 24 hrs pharmacy amounting to 129,535.00 could not be traced at the main pharmacy . This is because, the hospital accountants are not involved in processing of financial transactions. More over, unauthorized manufacturing staff such as dispensary technicians are used as cashiers at the pharmacy instead of accounting Personel. This has led to massive loss of revenue to the tune of Gh 128,935.

The indicting internal audit report also makes known the deliberate removal of both original and carbonated receipt vouchers at 24hrs pharmacy. For example, the report cites requisition no 0169623 and 0169627 were removed from the book in which is it bound. This makes it impossible to quantify the cost of the drugs covered by such a transaction. This shows clearly that medicines are being diverted by officialdom.

As if that is not enough, the head of pharmacy Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce has also been fingered for awarding contracts to fraudulent companies with invalid tax clearance certificates. Some of the fraudulent companies named in the audit report include Oson's Chemist Ltd. and Tata Africa holidays which companies falsified tax clearance certificates and own contracts with the connivance of the head of pharmacy.

According to deep throat sources within the Korle-Bu teaching hospital, the entire fraudulent operations at the hospital's pharmacies is orchestrated by the director of pharmacy Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce who is said to be responsible for the instability of the hospital's board of directors over the past few years. This is because, she does not want any new board or chief executive to expose her illegal activities.

It will be recalled that in the past two or more years, several agitations have taken place in Korle -Bu against the board and management which has led to frequent changes of top management at the hospital.

According to insider sources, there is no way that the problems of the teaching hospital can ever be solved as long as Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce remain as head of the pharmacy because she heads the mafia that is perpetuating the mess at the hospital.

After receiving the audit report that indicts her, Mrs. Bruce is said to be boasting that nobody can remove her from the position as head of pharmacy because, according to her, she is well connected to persons at the Presidency (flagstaff house) as well as media allies at JOY FM -Multi-Media group ltd. She has therefore rubbished the report by the internal auditors and is daring government to remove her.

Questions are now being asked by concerned workers within the Korle -Bu teaching hospital as to whether or not government will take the bold decision of removing Mrs. Bruce in order to pave way for correcting the chronic rot at the hospital or will she be left off the hook for the endless rot to continue at the expense of the general public. Some of the hospital workers have even threatened to demonstrate for the removal of Mrs. Bruce, who they say has become a malignant cancer to the hospital.

If Mrs. Bruce is however allowed to remain as head of pharmacy despite this indicting report, it may confirm the suspicion that some people in government may well be backing her illicit activities at the hospital.