Parliament yesterday summoned authorities at the King Harman Road hospital in Freetown to explain why it could not account for Le 173 million as contained in the 2010 auditor general’s report on ministries, departments and agencies.
Deputy chair of the public accounts committee, Eric Koedoyoma, MP, said they found out that payments balance amounting to Le 4.7 billion, meant for the national revenue authority, was not declared to the auditors.
He said it was also discovered that some 110 receipt books were missing, one of the main reasons the hospital authority was called to answer to queries.
In his response the outgoing Medical Superintendent, Dr. Alex Kanu explained that monies collected by the hospital were used on a daily basis which was why they could not save with the banks as was they were supposed to do. He said funds raised were used for petty cash and other daily expenditure of the hospital.
As for money meant for NRA, he said the hospital had always complied with payment and only owed them for the last two months when the authority had problems with their receipts.
Dr. Kanu said their finance officer would be in a better position to explain that because all financial transactions go through his office and he keeps records of receipts. But the finance officer said that although he made payments to the bank, he did not collect receipts.
The deputy committee chairman said that was the worst accounts keeping he had ever seen. He said those were matters of national interest and so should be treated seriously.
Koedoyoma warned that government offices and MDAs should stop running office finances like their pockets. He asked the finance officer to go back to his office and bring all documents he claimed to have rectified otherwise he would be detained.
