Director of Medical Affairs accused
The Director of Medical Affairs of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Prof. Afua A. Jectey Hesse, has come under severe criticism by some board members of the KBTH for allegedly conniving with some top officers of the hospital to engage in corrupt practices.
Two of the Korle-Bu board members—Lawyer Eric Kwaku Atieku and Mrs. Stella Quaye—accuse Prof. Hesse of illegally taking from the Korle-Bu Top-Up allowance fund GH¢3,681.54 every three months.
Set up in 2010, the Top-Up Allowance is a special fund instituted by the hospital to make up for differences in allowances paid to consultants at the University of the Ghana Medical School.
According to the two board members, although Prof. Hesse is not supposed to benefit from the fund, she has since October 2010, been drawing from the said account while she has not been rendering any service to the Korle-Bu Hospital.
However, Prof. Hesse denied the allegations when Today got to her through her mobile.
Listen to her response: “My hands are clean. And my brother if you are not satisfied with my simple answer, then I direct you to talk to the Public Relations Officer of the Hospital, Mr. Mustapha Salifu, over the matter.”
She immediately hang-up on this reporter after her terse response.
Attempts however to get the PRO on the matter drew blanks with unconfirmed reports suggesting that the mute silence of Mr. Salifu was influenced by a top official of the hospital.
A copy of the payment voucher titled: ‘Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service. Departmental Payment Voucher on Top Allowances’ and currently in possession of Today, however corroborate the allegations being made against the Korle-Bu top lady.
The documents offer details about recipients of the Top-Up Allowance of which Prof. Hesse is one of the beneficiaries.
She is number 82 on the payment voucher that contains the entire number of consultants who are supposed to benefit from the payment of Top-Up Allowance to consultants at the University of Ghana Medical School.
For the first three months that the voucher captures, the 110 consultants, including Prof. Hesse received GH¢295,515.54.
Today established from investigations that the Top-Up Allowance is a kind of stipend for extra duty activities and is paid to Lecturers at the University of Medical School who are rendering part-time clinical services to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
The University of Ghana Medical School is a different entity from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
Today gathered that with her appointment as the Director of Medical Affairs at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on May 1, 2010 Prof. Hesse was not supposed to withdraw from the Top-Up fund because she then became a full employee of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
But she continues to benefit from the Top-Up fund although she no longer renders clinical service to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
What is more intriguing as Today discovered, is that Prof. Hesse, who does not even qualify for the Top-Up, is now in-charge of approval of the facility of the Hospital without recourse to due process.
Further probes by the paper reveal that to follow due process, first the attention of the Director of Administration of Korle-Bu- Mr. Nelson Menorkpor- must be drawn to the list of payment on the Top-Ups for which he (Mr. Menorkpor) will prepare a Memo to the CEO of the Hospital for approval.
Secondly, the list is handed-over to the Director of Finance of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital who will then prepare a Payment Voucher (PV) to that effect.
Today discovered that Prof. Hesse, who by her current status does not qualify for the Top-Up allowance, by-passes the laid down procedures and goes directly to the Director of Finance, who is last in the chain of payment-preparation of Pay Vouchers, to demand the Top-Up Allowance.
Today’s findings further revealed that Mr. Menorkpor is totally left out of the process because he is not ready to sign a document which, in his opinion, has several flaws, like being approved by an unauthorised person like Prof. Afua Hesse.
Today’s investigations unfolded that Prof. Hesse receives double salary as a lecturer at the University of Ghana Medical School and a Director of Medical Affairs at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, aside from the fact that she receives Top-Up allowance at the Medical School.
Some aggrieved doctors at the Korle-Bu Hospital lamented that, “Prof. Hesse wears the ID Cards of both the University of Ghana Medical School and the KBTH to functions, and to work without and anaybody saying anything about it. You will see her with one ID Card on her left shoulder and the other on her right.”
STORY: KORYEKPOR AWLESU FREEMAN
