By: Kebba Ansu
Impeccable sources closed to Serrekunda General Hospital has hinted this medium on the alleged misappropriation of over D700,000 from the hospital coffers, while junior staff of the hospital are also planning to stage a protest relative to salaries and allowances increment of senior staff.
The Chief Executive Officer, Kebba Manneh, Principal Accountant, David Omar Bass, Administration Manager, Babucarr Saine and Muhammed Conteh, a cashier are alleged to have been responsible for the missing monies belonging to the hospital.
However, CEO Manneh denied the allegation and further declined to comments, but requested for a meeting with this reporter.
One Senior staffer of the hospital who chooses to remain anonymous disclosed to this medium that a sum of over D700, 000 (seven hundred thousand Dalasis) have been reported missing at the accounts department of the hospital, revealing that this misappropriation of funds comes to the limelight after auditors were done with the auditioning of the accounts of the hospital in September, 2020.
“As far as I know is only Muhammed Conteh who was taken to the Frauds Squad at Police Headquarters for questioning and apart from him, none of the other managers including CEO that go for questioning,” the source disclosed.
He added: “I can tell you that Muhammed Conteh is not in this alone and I believe this is why the management cannot take any action to this effect. He has not been charged at any court of law but only placed on administrative leave for more than seven (7) months now.”
According to him, Muhammed Conteh has been used to cover-up the mess of the top management staff including Principal Accountant and Administration Manager, revealing that Muhammed Conteh has alleged that these managers have been constantly asking him to withdraw monies for their personal use without following due process.
In a separate development, sources also revealed that junior staff at the hospital is on the verge of staging strike actions after the decision of the management to increase the salaries and allowances of the senior staff without increasing that of the low earners of the hospital.
The source disclosed that all senior staff from grade 6 upwards have received increment of salaries and allowances, while grade 5 downward have not received any increment on their salaries and allowances. “I can tell you that the junior staffs are on the verge of staging a protest against this decision of the management.
We thought that this is the highest form of segregation that the management can do to people who are responsible for all the heavy works at the hospital,” one Junior Staff of the Hospital disclosed.
He added: “We (junior staffs) from grade 5 downward are not happy with this discriminatory decision and we want the management to rescind the decision immediately. We believe that any decision to increase salaries and allowances should be across board but not segregate.”
Reacting to allegations labelled against the management regarding the misappropriation of funds belonging to the hospital, CEO Kebba Manneh, said the allegations are false but refused to delved into matters surrounding the missing D700, 000. CEO Manneh also dispute allegations that the salaries and allowances of senior staffers have been increased, while that of the junior staffers remains the same.
According to him, the management at the hospital only increases the allowances of senior staffers, adding that salaries of these senior staffers have not been increased. CEO Manneh expresses his intentions to meeting with this reporter to shed more lights on matters surrounding the hospital.