Former Environment Minister, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has recounted how former Speaker of Parliament, Doe Adjaho and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman, Asiedu Nketia, saved him.
This, according to him, was when he appeared before a Parliamentary Audit Committee during his tenure as a Chief Executive of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng recounted he was dragged before the committee for engaging in sole sourcing and evading certain procurement processes.
Speaking in an interview on Accra-based TV3, the renowned surgeon who was also the head of the Cardiothoracic unit stated his action was borne out of desperate measures which needed to be taken.
“I was desperate. I needed to save Korle-Bu and that is why I did that so I needed to appear before the parliamentary select committee on audit.
“At that meeting, the two people who saved me were General Mosquito and Doe Adjaho. The members were saying that I have gone through the non-process. But they asked what I have done wrong and argued that the process may not be good but I have saved the country a lot of money so let him go,” he recounted.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng in August 2007 at a press conference revealed he was able to stop questionable procurements and bogus contracts that were costing the nation billions of cedis.
He said before he took over, the hospital was paying ¢18 billion for sutures, but he was able to source out the same quantity of sutures from India for ¢450 million, as a result, he saved the hospital and the nation over ¢17 billion.
The former CEO also said the hospital used to pay ¢2.4 billion for CSSD tapes yearly but he was able to acquire CSSD tapes for far less and the hospital used the items for three years.
According to the heart surgeon, under his administration, the hospital was able to generate funds on its own to build a new administration block at the cost of ¢8.6 billion.
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