Xmas bonuses for Korle-Bu staff were not approved – Board

Initial investigations by the Board of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has confirmed the Hospital paid more than GHC100,000 as Christmas bonuses to the staff and management members of the Hospital.

Chairman of the Board, Prof Antony Mawuli Sallar said preliminary investigations have revealed authorities at the Hospital paid staff each staff member GHC100 and management staff a total of GHC17,000 as Christmas bonuses for 2016.

According to him, the Board approved the payment for the staff members as motivation but noted the board did not approve payments of bonuses for the management members including the Chief Executive of the Hospital.

“It’s been established that the allocation has been done just as you [3FM] have alleged. It’s true. You guys were the first to tell me this news.

The board was not aware. I called my other colleagues on the board and they had no idea,” he told 3News Tuesday. He said the Management had no authority to approve the said payment for itself and expressed surprised that the management members paid themselves bonuses at the blindside of the Board.

Prof. Sallar said the board would have opposed the payment of such bonuses to the management members and the Chief Executive who received GHC21,000 if they were put on notice.

“I can assure you if it had come to the board, we would have opposed paying that money. For two years that we have been there [as board] we have not had board meetings outside Accra.

We have not had any residential board meeting in a hotel or anywhere because we know Korle-Bu does not have money,” he noted. Meanwhile, the board of the Hospital is expected to issue a statement on the matter on Wednesday, January 18, 2017.

Commenting on the issue, General Secretary of the Korle-Bu Senior Staff Association, James Clifford, has told 3FM they will push for investigation into the matter.

“We will take the matter up because Korle-Bu [Teaching Hospital] is a national asset. It is not for the senior staff workers alone. I hereby call on all Ghanaians to take keen interest in happenings at Korle-Bu,” he said.

Co-chair of the Citizen Movement Against Corruption, Edem Senanu, on the other hand has expressed disappointment at the turn of events at the nation’s biggest hospital.