KATH staff drags CEO to CHRAJ over misuse of Covid-19 funds

Certified Chartered Forensic Accountant and a Member of staff of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice (CHRAJ) to probe the alleged misappropriation of Covid-19 funds by the CEO of the hospital.

According to the petitioner, although the CEO complains that the hospital has no money and faces a lot of challenges such as inadequate beds that have resulted in deaths of patients, lack of laboratory reagents to run basic Labs tests like HBA1C, LFT, Beta-HCG, PSA, hepatitis C RNA, spoilt elevators at D-block and C-block,leaking roofs when it rains, clumsy and unkempt floor of the wards, broken windows that allow mosquitoes to infest patients with additional sickness on the ward among a slew of others, management has bought two additional luxurious Toyota Camrys of 2020 model for the pleasure and comfort of the CEO, Dr Oheneba Owusu Danso, and the Medical Director, Prof. Baafuor Kofi Opoku.

The petitioner wants CHRAJ to probe an allegation that the Medical Director, Prof. Baafuor Kofi Opoku, has given his official car, one of the two luxurious cars, to his wife to use and she was involved in an accident with it on the 23rd of August, 2021.

“That the wife of the Medical Director is not an employee of KATH and hence using our official car and getting accident with it constitute an abuse of public office by the medical director. Have my assurance to assist you fully in this endeavour to punish any wrong doing and to sanitize the management system of our only premier tertiary hospital serving Asanteman to enhance quality health care that Asanteman and its environs deserve,” the petitioner said in his petition.

Below is the full petition:

P. O. Box 854, Kumasi, Ashanti.

10th November, 2021.

The Commissioner,

Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Old Parliament House, Accra.

PETITION TO INVESTIGATE CEO OF KATH, DR. OHENEBA OWUSU DANSO, OVER ALLEGATIONS OF SPLURGING COVID19 FUNDS ON LUXURIOUS CARS AND THE INVOLVEMENT IN ACCIDENT BY, EMMA BAAFUOR OPOKU, THE WIFE OF THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR (KATH) WITH KATH OFFICIAL CAR OF REGISTRATION NUMBER GX2895-20.

Pursuant to section 7(1a, c, e and f) of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice Act of 1993 Act 456, I invoke your jurisdiction to undertake the above stated function.

1. That I am a Certified Chartered Forensic Accountant and a member of staff of KATH for eleven years.

2. That in the year 2020, when Ghana recorded Covid-19 cases, individuals, philanthropists and civil society groups having aroused by the consternation of the pandemic made various donations to KATH in varied forms to augment government’s effort and to fortify the hospital in the fight against the pandemic. Notable among them were liquid cash of dollars donated by Kwame Despite and Kwadwo Asamoah of $100,000 and $20,000 respectively.

3. That KATH faces a lot of challenges such as inadequate beds that have resulted in deaths of patients, lack of laboratory reagents to run basic Labs tests like HBA1C, LFT, Beta-HCG, PSA, hepatitis C RNA, spoilt elevators at D-block and C-block, leaking roofs when it rains, clumsy and unkempt floor of the wards, broken windows that allow mosquitoes to infest patients with additional sickness on the ward among a slew of others.

4. That the CEO at a performance review meeting and business meeting of the hospital has stated that all the directorates of the hospital incurred losses in the year under review which cumulative loss was about Ghc 6.2million wherefore the hospital was unable to pay end of year 2020 bonuses to members of staff and meet the logistical needs of the hospital such as listed in point 3 above. And just on the 29th of October, 2021, the Acting Head of Directorate of Trauma and Orthopaedics Directorate had to write to suspend all orthopaedics surgeries at the A&E theatre due to unavailability of theatre tables.

5. That the CEO has an official car – Nissan SUV 2016 registered which he took over as brand new car in 2017 when he was appointed.

6. That in spite of the challenges as enumerated in 3 above, management has bought two additional luxurious Toyota Camrys of 2020 model for the pleasure and comfort of the CEO, Dr Oheneba Owusu Danso, and the Medical Director, Prof. Baafuor Kofi Opoku.

7. That if the hospital made loss in the year 2020 but management could raise money to buy the two luxurious Toyota Camry cars at a cost of $58,000 each, the two of which cost $116,000, then it stands to reason that they used the covid19 funds to buy the two cars the purchase of which is far removed from the intended purpose of the donated monies. It also has apocalyptic repercussions in the future on the hospital because benefactors will not have the urge to give donations to the hospital if their donations will be splurged on luxurious cars for the comfort of Directors and not the maintenance and the well-being of patients.

8. That the Medical Director, Prof. Baafuor Kofi Opoku, gave his official car, one of the two luxurious cars, to his wife to use and she got accident with it on the 23rd of August, 2021.

9. That the wife of the Medical Director is not an employee of KATH and hence using our official car and getting accident with it constitute an abuse of public office by the medical director. Have my assurance to assist you fully in this endeavour to punish any wrong doing and to sanitize the management system of our only premier tertiary hospital serving Asanteman to enhance quality health care that Asanteman and its environs deserve. Humbly submitted,

Yours in the Service of Ghana,

Awuni Akyireba.

And for service on: 1. Internal Audit Unit(KATH)

2. H. R. M. Otumfour Osei Tutu II

Source: africaneditors.com