Koforidua, Nov. 20, GNA - The Medical Director of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, Dr Daniel Asare, on Friday explained to the staff how some unknown persons managed to withdraw over GH¢ 150,000 from the internally generated accounts of the hospital. The unknown persons withdrew the money from the Koforidua branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).

Throwing more light on the incident during a staff durbar of the hospital, Dr Asare said on November 2, this year, he was informed that th= e bank had refused to honour cheques of the hospital presented to it and wh= en it was checked, it was realized that over GH¢ 150,000 had been withdraw= n from the hospital's account.

He said an initial investigation by the hospital revealed that some leaflets of two cheque books issued to the hospital by the bank had been cloned and the signatures of the accounts falsified to withdraw the amoun= t. Dr Asare said the original cheque leaflets in the cheque books issue= d to the hospital were still intact. He said six cheques were presented with different amounts on them between October 19 to October 29 and the cheque with the least amount was=

over GH¢ 18,000. Dr Asare expressed disappointment about the failure of the bank to notify the hospital for confirmation when it realized that the amount bei= ng withdrawn was huge until the fraud was detected after the crime had been committed. He said the management of the hospital then wrote to the bank to dem= and their money and reported the case to the police.

Dr Asare said so far the bank had made money available to the hospit= al and it had been able to cash almost GH¢ 148,000 from the accounts and appealed to the staff to remain calm about the financial position of the hospital. He said the police were currently handling the case adding that he h= ad assured the police of the full co-operation of the management of the hospital in the matter. He informed the staff that the National Health Insurance Accreditati= on Board had graded the hospital as a grade "A" Facility and explained that such grading required the staff to work harder for the hospital to contin= ue to enjoy that recognition.

Dr Asare said currently the hospital was short of nurses because all=

the health aids working at the place had been withdrawn and about 35 nurs= es had either retired or gone on transfer. He said to address the situation and also to help improve upon the clients' services of the young nurses, the hospital had engaged the servi= ces of some retired deputy directors who were quiet strong as Senior Nurse Volunteers. 20 Nov. 10