KORLE BU WANTS TO BE PROBE

By Rowland Phillips-Addo
The immediate past chairman of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Board of Directors and the sitting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) also of the same institution have indicated to the Al-Hajj unequivocally that, even though there may be avenues through which employees of the hospital perpetrate acts inimical to the smooth running of the facility, the primary objective of their stewardship was to ensure that all such holes were plugged for the efficient running of the hospital and to ensure value for money.
In separate telephone interviews, the two Professors, Seth Aryeetey and Otu Nartey bemoaned the extent to which they have been vilified and victimized without cause and noted that they would welcome full-scale investigations into the management of the hospital.
The former Chairman of the Korle-Bu Board of Directors, Prof. Seth Aryeetey indicated that he would prefer any probe to be instituted to be made public so as to enable anyone who has evidence regarding corrupt practices perpetrated by him to come forward and prove them publicly.
Prof. Aryeetey noted that, reports in the media in recent times associating him with board room wrangling, importation of drugs under the aegis of Korle-Bu, fraud, hijacking of vehicles, evasion of import tax among others are utter falsehood that beat his imagination and urged government to immediately set up a public probe to set the records straight.
He asked in frenzy mood “have I ever occasioned the dismissal of a security officer? have I ever imported drugs under the aegis of Korle-Bu as to evade import duties? Have I ever hijacked vehicles belonging to Korle-Bu? Have I demanded a bribe from any contractor? Have I defrauded anyone? These are questions I want public enquiry to discover the facts behind the scenes.”
Prof. Aryeetey said he is poised to face any public enquiry that would offer him the opportunity to give account of his stewardship during his tenure as chairman of the board and to clear himself of the false allegations made against his person and the office he held as board chairman.
Asked why he prefers a public enquiry, the learned Professor indicated that, “it would give an opportunity to any one with substantive evidence in respect of the alleged corrupt practices I have indulged in to come out publicly to prove to the whole world. Further, I personally think the public should demand accountability from all public servants and such a forum would guarantee that”, he concluded.
On his part, the CEO of the hospital, Prof. Otu Nartey said “it is sad that while people spend sleepless nights to plan for the efficient and effective functioning of the facility, others sit behind and fleece the hospital of funds that is not legitimately theirs, thus sending wrong signals to the supervising authorities”.
“As I have indicated over and over again, my administration will not allow any such illicit acts to go on in the hospital, and this position is what has informed the structural changes the board and management embarked on when I took office as CEO”, he said.
The Head of the Procurement Unit of the Hospital, Mrs. Felicity Commey who this reporter also had a telephone interview with also welcomes a probe into the procurement procedure adopted by the hospital since Prof. Otu Nartey took over as CEO saying that, “but for Prof. Nartey’s administration, procurement procedures would not have taken the prescribed course. The streamlining of procurement procedures has eliminated a lot of fraudulent activities on the part of some suppliers and even some staff of the hospital, hence the bad press the hospital administrators and managers have suffered in the immediate past. These I suspect are sponsored attacks by certain disgruntled ones”.
All these notwithstanding, Prof. Seth Aryeetey has made known his intention to drag the offending media houses who have remained belligerent in this “unholy yet calculated attempts to undermine my hard won integrity to court”.
It would be recalled that, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has since late last year, been in the news with news reports alleging serious fraud and corruption on the part of some employees and board members of the hospital.
These developments led to the premature yet honourable resignation of the Board Chairman, Rev. Prof. Seth Andrews Aryeetey on February 29 and the subsequent removal of the three remaining government appointed board members in the persons of Stella Quaye, Eric Atieku and Fritz Baffour.