General News of Tuesday, 3 October 2017

Source: peacefmonline.com

Rescission of Korle Bu, Unibank contract is weird - Nana Ofori Owusu

PPP Director of Operations, Nana Ofori Owusu PPP Director of Operations, Nana Ofori Owusu

Management of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has rescinded their decision to terminate its contract with Unibank.

The rescission comes on the heels of back and forth arguments bordering on corruption allegations involving the hospital, the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff and controversial musician cum politician Kwame Asare Obeng aka A-plus.

Unibank (Ghana) Limited is a financial institution at the center of the Korle bu/A plus cum Police CID leaked audio brouhaha.

Unibank's management accused Korle-Bu of creating distortions regarding the onsite banking services at the facility which led to the termination of their contract.

Unibank "frowns on peddling of falsehood in the media and on social media, and would therefore request the general public and the media to stick to the facts at all times", it said in a statement.

The Public Relations Department of the Korle-Bu Hospital on Friday sought to demystify the on the onsite banking services saying in a statement; "On behalf of the Hospital, I wish to clarify distortions carried in sections of the media in respect of the onsite banking services in the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The Hospital’s decision to outsource its revenue collection followed a directive by Government in 2008 that all public institutions should cede the collection of their revenue to selected banks in the country.

" . . A total of six banks were shortlisted to undergo a competitive selection process which was scored in 2015. Stanbic Bank emerged first and Unibank was 4th. A decision was taken to select Stanbic Bank that was first and Unibank that was 4th to partition the collection of revenue in the hospital. When the Hospital submitted the names of the two banks to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for approval, it raised issues about weaknesses in UniBank’s operations in two other hospitals in the metropolis . . . As the two banks started the onsite banking services the leakages persisted, Management decided to search for an End-to-End Hospital Revenue Collection Software to integrate and network its operations".

However, Korle Bu has cancelled the termination of Unibank's contract and this is the reason that PPP Director of Operations Nana Ofori Owusu is calling for an independent probe into the matter.

Nana Ofori Owusu has called on Akufo-Addo's administration to decouple the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General's Department, to ensure that the Attorney General is independent to carry out investigations into the saga.

He wondered why Korle-Bu has made a sudden U-turn to rescind their decision to abrogate Unibank's contract, asking whether there's some under dealing going on to have caused the hospital's management to arrive at their decision.

"Major corruption charges was levied. Within the major corruption charges, there has been an outcome. What is the outcome? What’s being the outcome? The bank has now gotten back their job. So me, I find it kinda weird . . .,” he said.