Board demands 'proper' BLH audit
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday May 4, 2018 14:01
This comes a month into the three-month suspension of the hospital’s CEO, Moagi Mmitsi and the Bamalete Lutheran Hospital of Nursing (BLSON) principal, Martha Mothibe.
The completion of the audit is expected by May 15, 2018.
Both Mothibe and Mmitsi are expected to appear before a disciplinary committee hearing by the end of this month.
Mmegi has learnt that the hospital Board has appointed a team of six, two from the hospital and four from outside to conduct the investigation.
“The Board wants to have enough evidence on the matter.
The Board wanted neutral people to conduct the investigations into the matter. It felt that some people are compromised,” a source said, who emphasised that the Board was seeking a proper and thorough probe into the BLH and BLSON books.
The hospital Board chairperson, Phenyo Segokgo nonetheless told Mmegi: “I cannot discuss this issue because it is internal. The hospital management will brief the media once investigations are completed”.
Some employees of BLH had written a letter to the Office of the President (OP) and the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) to look into allegations of corruption and malpractice at the BLH and the School of Nursing.
The employees wrote the letter to the OP appealing for help, citing gross mismanagement at the institution.
Mmegi has it on good authority that the DCEC has submitted a report to the Board about a number of things, including that the management allegedly gave a company a tender without following the procurement process for a tender worth P500,000 or more.
The report also found that there were a lot of maladministration issues at the hospital that the Board should attend to.
It also recommended that the Board should set up a disciplinary committee.
“The issue is not over and I cannot comment on internal hospital matters. The Board is simply following laid down hospital procedures and there is nothing happening. Of course our investigation as the Board is still on going,” Segokgo said.
The investigation also follows a series of pay disputes that took place for several months last year at the hospital.
The letter was also copied to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Member of Parliament, Board Chairperson of the hospital, the CEO and the BLSON principal.
The employees made damning allegations including misuse of funds, fallacious audit reports, lack of promotions and poor remuneration.
The employees said they demanded a proper audit by a reputable company.
The employees decried that money for staff salaries was always over-budgeted for, but that management always failed to account for it despite employees not spending the entire allocated budget.
The management was accused of hand-picking companies for tenders instead of following normal tendering procedures.
“It is true I am suspended by the Board. They told me that I was under investigation because of some irregularities they allege I have done. I am told that I had paid a person or employee the amount of money that I was not supposed to pay them,” Mothibe said.
Efforts to reach the CEO were futile.