Bamalete Lutheran Hospital suspends CEO, Principal on corruption allegations

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday March 9, 2018 22:24

 

This comes after some employees of BLH wrote a letter to the Office of the President (OP) and Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) to look into allegations of corruption and malpractice at the BLH and BLSON.

Mmegi has it on good authority that DCEC had made a report to the Board about a number of things. Amongst others, the DCEC allegedly found out that the management would give a company a tender worth over P500,000 without following procurement process.

The report also found out that there were a lot of maladministration issues at the hospital, which the board should attend to.  It also recommended that the Board should set out a disciplinary committee.

Board chairperson, Phenyo Segokgo said they cannot comment on the matter that it was still under investigation.

“The issue is not over and I cannot comment on internal hospital matters. The Board is simply following the laid down hospital procedures, and there is nothing happening. Of course, our investigations as the Board is still on going,” he said.

The employees had written a letter to the OP appealing for help, citing gross mismanagement at the institution. This 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 chief executive officer and the principal of BLSON.

The employees made damning allegations, including misuse of funds, fallacious audit reports, lack of promotions and poor remuneration. The employees also demanded a proper audit by a reputable company.

The employees decried that money for staff salaries was always over-budgeted for, but the 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 am under investigations 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 suppose to pay them,” Mothibe said.

Efforts to get comment from Mmitsi were unsuccessful as his mobile phone was off air.