<<Print>>

The Health Ministry has rebuffed allegations that Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital management has misapplied hospital funds to acquire nine posh cars for official use by its directors. Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Tony Goodman, has explained that the ministry provided the cars under a hire-purchase agreement which is available to any staff or institution under the ministry. This follows a petition authored by senior staff of West Africa's largest hospital and sent to President John Mahama. They have accused the management of misapplying the Internally Generated Funds to buy VW Passats. The senior staff of the hospital are, among other things, accusing the board and management of the hospital of spending more than one million Ghana cedis on 'luxury' vehicles when there were pressing issues such as non-availability of water and other challenges to deal with. The staff claim although the acting Chief Executive of the hospital, Albert Okpoti Botwe, already has an official vehicle the board has given the green light for him to buy the latest Audi A6 car for his personal use. The petition further said Mr Botwe allegedly ordered nine brand new cars all totaling more than one million Ghana cedis to be bought for the management members The CEO has rejected the allegations that he independently purchased nine cars for management members and challenged the accusing staff to provide evidence. He, however, admitted that the Audi A6 was only for his official use. Admitting to the purchase of the fleet of cars, the Board Chairman, Eddie Annan, told Joy News, the nine cars were bought under a hire-purchase scheme run by the Ministry of Health. "I don't think it's a problem", he said because the cars are used to assist the hospital management to run the hospital. Their work, he explained, has a direct bearing in the hospital's ability to run effectively. Explaining the issues further, Tony Goodman said Korle-Bu is paying Ghc21,000 a month for the next three years for the nine VW Passats. The unit cost of each car is Ghc82,290, he revealed.