The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has issued a firm ultimatum to the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Yakubu Seidu Adam, giving him 90 days to personally refund GH¢113,000 to the state over unresolved negligence cases at the facility.
This decisive move by Parliament’s accountability body comes after the hospital failed to recover judgment debts paid out in two troubling incidents — one involving the tragic death of a patient from a medication overdose, and another linked to a disturbing mix-up of bodies in the hospital’s morgue that led to an exhumation and reburial.
Rather than shifting blame or issuing warnings to subordinate officers, the PAC is now placing direct responsibility on leadership.
During the PAC’s public sitting on Monday, September 29, Ranking Member Samuel Atta-Mills confronted Dr. Adam over the hospital’s inaction in recovering the GH¢113,000 from the officers whose negligence led to the payouts.
“We recommended that the Acting Chief Executive Officer should recover the total amount… failing which the Acting Chief Executive Officer should pay,” Atta-Mills stressed. “Have you done that?”
Dr. Adam acknowledged the delay, admitting the hospital had not yet recovered the funds or remitted them to the Auditor-General’s Recoveries Account at the Bank of Ghana.
But the committee was in no mood for excuses.
“Our Chief Executive Officer, we give you 90 days to pay this GH¢113,000,” Atta-Mills declared, effectively holding Dr. Adam personally liable if the funds are not recovered within the stipulated period.
The PAC’s latest directive signals a broader shift in how it handles institutional lapses — putting senior public officials directly in the line of accountability when mismanagement results in financial losses for the state.
It also sends a strong message that negligence within Ghana’s public health system — particularly when it leads to loss of life or the violation of families’ dignity — will not go unpunished or quietly settled behind closed doors.
This development places further pressure on the leadership of Ghana’s largest referral hospital, already under scrutiny for past operational challenges, and underscores the PAC’s growing resolve to curb impunity and restore financial discipline across public institutions.
