Management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital say the Hospital is financially challenged hence the delay in paying the salary arrears of over 500 of its staff.
The Hospital’s managers have however assured the workers that frantic efforts are being made to ensure that they receive their outstanding cash. The aggrieved workers last week threatened to demonstrate this week if they are not paid their nine months arrears.
According to the workers, their salary arrears had accumulated as a result of a salary increment in 2009. They said the Hospital had paid six months of the outstanding amount between July and December, with that of 2010 yet to be cleared.
Some of the workers claim the Hospital’s management is deliberately refusing to pay them. But the Human Resource Manager of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Mr. Mahmoud Abdul Islam, has told Citi News a demonstration will not solve the issue.
He has thus appealed to the workers to exercise restraint since management was working round the clock to move them onto the payroll of the Controller and Accountant General.
“In the first place, it is not allowed to use internally generated funds to pay employees. Over the years, the practice has been that these employees were put on our payroll and there wasn’t any proper control over the numbers that were employed and so it built up to that point. But management is making a lot of efforts to move them onto the Government payroll and they are aware of that. So I don’t think a demonstration is an option because their leaders are aware that management has been trying”.
“We are challenged financially for the meantime in relation to the payment of the IGF staff, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have enough to keep the Hospital running” he assured.