Korle Bu going ahead with court case against A-G'S advise

The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has decided to continue the case of its interdicted Director of Pharmacy, Mrs Elizabeth Bruce, contrary to an earlier agreement to settle.

 Counsel for the hospital, Mr Kin Hussein Ibn Alhassan, told the Accra High Court that the hospital was unable to settle the case in which Mrs Bruce, in April 2015, took legal action after she was interdicted in January 2015 for allegedly misappropriating funds at the Pharmacy Department.

But counsel for Mrs Bruce, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, expressed dissatisfaction with the answer and told the court that agreement was reached during the court’s last sitting and there was a letter from the Attorney-General’s Department to back his position.

Waving a letter purportedly from the A-G, Mr Odame said “These are some of the things that public officers do that result in the financial loss to the state. The Attorney General has advised for settlement and yet they wants to continue?”

But Mr Ibn Alhassan told the court that the letter was not for the consumption of the court.

Contempt

 In July last year, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the hospital and two others had to purge themselves of contempt charges by withdrawing a letter terminating the appointment of the hospital’s head of accounting.

On July 23, 2015, a Human Rights Court ordered the hospital to reinstate the sacked Director of the Pharmacy.

The decision of the court follows the dismissal of Mrs. Bruce by authorities of the hospital.
The hospital in June 2015 announced the dismissal of Mrs  Bruce and four others after a forensic audit found them culpable of misappropriating over GHC900, 000.

Lawyers of Elizabeth Bruce subsequently dragged the management of the hospital to the Human Rights Court for contempt after she was sacked.

 Background

Mrs Bruce, in April 2015, took legal action after she was interdicted in January 2015 for allegedly misappropriating funds at the Pharmacy Department.

The court was yet to hear the matter after the hospital had filed its defence when the respondents proceeded to dismiss her in June 2015, resulting in the filing of the contempt application.
The court, on July 8, 2015, advised parties in the case to attempt settlement.

An affidavit in support of the motion averred that following an unlawful “forensic audit” exercise by a private firm of chartered accountants pursuant to an unlawful appointment by the Minister of Health, she was unlawfully interdicted on January 29, 2015 by the respondents, without recourse to the mandatory provisions of the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospitals Act, 1996 (Act 525) and the Civil Service Regulations, 1960 (L.I. 47).

It noted that after her interdiction, an Administrative Enquiry Committee was unlawfully set up by the respondents to establish her culpability, if any, in the findings of the forensic audit exercise.

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