The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has referred the Tepa District Hospital to the Attorney-General (A-G) for prosecution over breach of procurement process.
The violation is in connection with the supply of goods and services in eight transactions worth GH¢33,895.04 without competitive tendering.
The Chairman of the PAC, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, gave the order when the management of the hospital appeared before the committee yesterday.
The breach is captured in the Report of the Auditor-General on the public accounts of Ghana – Ministries, Departments and other Agencies (MDAs) for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Per the report the hospital flouted Sections 35 and 43 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) which requires that, “a procurement entity should procure goods, services or works by competitive tendering; and that the procurement entity shall request quotations from as many suppliers or contractors as practicable, but from at least three different sources.”
Tepa District Hospital is one of the 32 institutions in eight regions who were cited in the report for the breach in the procurement of goods and services totalling GH¢12,368,943.70 without obtaining alternative price quotations from other dealers in similar goods and services.
“In some instances, they failed to follow the appropriate procurement methods,” the report said.
The hospital representatives who appeared before the PAC did not have the opportunity to explain because the committee deemed the breach as a straight forward matter.
“Per the criteria we’re using they are qualified to be referred,” Dr Avedzi said and directed the clerk of the committee to “add them to the list”.
Earlier, the committee directed the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to, as a matter of urgency, facilitate effort to have parliament amend the Fees and Charges Act to reflect some unapproved fees charged by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and LEKMA Hospital.
As captured by the Audit Report, the two hospitals charged patients, maintenance and intramural fees and other service fees amounting to GH¢35,440,924.20 for the period January 2019 to December 2020 without the approval of Parliament.
This was contrary to Regulation 48 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378) which provides that,” a Principal Spending officer responsible for collecting various types of fees and charges shall review annually the administrative efficiency of collection, the accuracy of past estimates and the relevance of rates, fees and charges to current economic conditions and submit proposal through the Minister to Parliament for approval.”
In the hospital’s defence, the acting Director of Finance of Korle Bu, Lucas Amewudah, told the committee that it had written twice in 2021 and 2022 to the Ministry of Finance, through the health ministry, to lead the way to get the approval from parliament.
Although Mr Agyeman-Manu denied knowledge of the letters, he promised to ensure that the issue was addressed as soon as possible.
Dr Avedzi said albeit the fees were unauthorised, the committee could not stop them from charging same because they had to do with health while the services would not be free.
“These charges must be part of the Fees and Charges Act. If they are not part they have not been approved,” he said to the sector ministry and hospital management
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
