In what one source describes as “just a tip of the iceberg in the corruption considered second nature in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital”, UCTH, two Accounts Department staff (names withheld) have lost their jobs after authorities of the hospital discovered that both staff, a male and a female, have over a period of time engaged in activities that financially shortchanged the institution.
Specifically calitown.com learnt that the now sacked male staff is believed to have printed fake United Bank for Africa, UBA, bank tellers that he issued to unsuspecting patients and pocketed huge sums of money in the process. The female member of staff on the other hand, who had barely settled down on the job she got in 2012, wrote receipts without a carbon underlay and in so doing, falsified on numerous receipts the actual amount collected for medical services rendered by UCTH. Where the hospital for instance, should have earned N1, 900 (one thousand nine hundred naira), a paltry N190 (one hundred and ninety naira) will be reflected in the receipt booklet while the patient’s receipt bore the actual amount paid. The lid on their activities is said to have been blown when the hospital authorities discovered that while patient population increased astronomically, corresponding finances dwindled.
The situation is said to have triggered an investigation that saw agents of UCTH seek out patients who were recently discharged and tellers recovered in the process as well as receipts for payments made, did not tally with what the hospital had in hand. While further investigations revealed that the female member of staff pocketed a whooping N1.8 million during a six month period, the other staff pocketed something in the region of N2.5 million.
As at press time, relevant authorities in the institution were reluctant to comment on the case, but one source confirmed that “those involved in that matter have been shown the way out so that others who may want to toe that line will know that the reward thereafter is a shameful one”.
