The immediate past board members of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) have descended heavily on the management members of the premier health facility for doling out a whopping GH¢ 153,000 to pay themselves as Christmas bonuses.
According to the four former board members, the amount appropriated by management members, including the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Korle-Bu, Dr Gilbert Buckle, was not approved by the hospital’s board before it was paid out.
The four ex-board members – Prof Anthony Mawuli Sallar, Past Board Chairman, Henry Atta Paidoo, Kempes Ofosu Ware and Perpetua Kafui Annan, in a statement to set the records straight said the management of KBTH rather approved the amount for themselves instead of getting the board to approve it.
Media reports had indicated that KBTH in Accra spent more than GH¢ 100,000 on Christmas bonuses for its management and staff members.
Each staff member was reported to have received GH¢ 100 as an end-of-year party and awards night as part of employee recognition programme and a motivation strategy.”
The dissolved board of the hospital had approved the GH¢100 for only staff and not management, but it turned out that management rather appropriated the amount to themselves at the expense of over 4,000 workers at the hospital.
“It must be reiterated that management never submitted to the board any proposal for the payment of bonus to the staff, including the directors and management for the two years tenure of the dissolved board because KBTH does not operate any bonus scheme as a result of its precarious financial situation.”
“It, therefore, came as a shock to the four government appointees that a colossal amount of over GH¢100, 000 had been paid to only nine directors, six of them executive directors on the board and very much aware that such a proposal should have come to the board for consideration at the last meeting of the board held on January 4, 2017,” they stated.
According to the former board members, the conduct of management of KBTH lacks equity, fairness ad transparency.
They continued…“Huge financial resources would be required to sustain these staff welfare benefits and for nine directors of KBTH to dole out GH¢ 153,000 to pay themselves an allowance of GH¢21,00O to the Chief Executive, Dr Gilbert Buckle, and GH¢17, 000 each to seven other directors and GH¢13,000 to head of Internal Audit at the expense of a workforce of close to 4,000 employees who toil to generate the internal revenue and at the blind side of the board lacks equity, fairness, and transparency .”
They argued that “ethical behaviour and best practice corporate governance posit that directors of a public sector institution do not have the capacity to determine their own compensation and pay without recourse to its board as such the payment of the so-called allowance to themselves is a flagrant violation of these principles and practices.”
In the statement, they indicated that “in as much the four government appointees on the erstwhile board disassociate themselves from the unauthorised payout to the CEO and nine directors, the good people of Ghana who constitute the shareholders of KBTH, we believe, need answers to the following questions.”
“Who authorised the payment to the CEO, Dr Buckle and the other eight directors who are all non-clinical staff? What criterion was used to determine the nine beneficiaries out of approximately 4,000 workforce of KBTH? Why no payments were effected during the two years tenure of the erstwhile board and payment was effected at the time the board was exiting?” they queried.
BY Melvin Tarlue