The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has raised serious concerns about financial irregularities at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), after the latest Auditor-General’s report revealed the payment of unearned salaries amounting to GHS1,449,000.
Committee members expressed outrage when it was disclosed that the hospital had validated the salary of a deceased staff member for 26 months.
Appearing before the Committee in Accra on Monday, September 29, the hospital’s Director of Administration, Dr. Emmanuel Sena Kwasi Donkor, admitted that only GHS303,558.68 — representing about 21 percent of the total amount — had so far been recovered.
“We were able to recover some amounts. Before we got here, we had received letters from some banks stating that they had stopped transferring the funds to the government chest,” Dr. Donkor told the Committee.
He appealed for parliamentary intervention to ensure full recovery of the funds.
“Maybe at the end of this session we will make a prayer to this House for the House to make an order directing those banks to transfer,” he said.
Dr. Donkor further disclosed that the hospital had submitted the list of implicated individuals to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for investigation and recovery.
“EOCO has written back requesting the files of the people involved, and we have submitted them,” he added.
Despite these assurances, PAC members expressed dissatisfaction with the hospital’s explanation.
Ranking Member, Samuel Atta-Mills, questioned the hospital’s validation process, citing the case of a deceased employee whose salary continued to be paid long after his death.
“Habib Napare – date of separation was 2022. This guy had died. Didn’t you go to the funeral? And you validated this dead person for 26 months? And now you are coming to tell Parliament to do what?” Atta-Mills asked sharply.
The Committee has since demanded greater accountability from the hospital, warning that lax validation systems enable financial leakages that undermine the public purse.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
