By Tabora Bojang
Aspecial audit has been launched at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital days after fraud allegations rocked the main referral hospital.
There have been heated exchanges between the chairman of the board, Dr Adama Sallah and the deputy chief medical director Dr Abubacarr Jagne. It comes after Dr Sallah alleged on Freedom Radio corruption at the hospital involving unauthorised travels resulting in hundreds of thousands of dalasis of per diem, improper procurement and outright corruption in the hospital.
He accused Dr Jangne and other senior officials of orchestrating the alleged corrupt acts.
Dr Jange denied these allegations and also accused Dr Sallah of attempted nepotism and using his influence in many instances in matters that border on conflict of interests for his personal benefits.
The Standard contacted the director of health services under the Ministry of Health, Dr Mustapha Bittaye, on these allegations. Dr Bittaye, who is also a member of the EFSTH board, said the board had written to the Ministry of Health requesting for an audit and the health ministry inturn wrote to the Ministry of Finance seeking for the services of an audit exercise into the activities and management of funds at the hospital.
He confirmed that auditors from the National Audit Office have already started the exercise. According to him, the Ministry will wait for the outcome of the audit exercise before taking actions. He warned that there will be no cover-up or sacred cows after the report is completed.
“We expect that the investigation will not leave any stone unturned. And there will be no sacred cows, no cover-ups as far as implementation will be concerned,” Dr Bittaye stated.
