The Contempt charges filed by the sacked Director of Pharmacy of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Elizabeth Bruce, has been refused and the parties asked to go for an out of court settlement.
Lawyers for Mrs. Bruce had filed contempt proceedings against the chairman of the hospital’s Board, Professor Anthony Mawuli Sallar and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Gilbert Buckle, over the dismissal of their client, as well as Korle-Bu as an entity.
She was praying the court to commit the CEO, Dr Buckle, and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Prof. Sallar to prison and also impose ‘a very heavy fine’ on Korle-Bu as an entity, for contempt over the dismissal and any orders that the court may deem fit.
But, when the parties appeared before the Human Rights Division of the High Court presided over by Justice Kofi Essel Mensah, they were given 15 days to settle the dispute and report back to the court on July 23, 2015.
This followed the dismissal of the Director of Pharmacy and three other senior staff of the hospital, including Eric Kwaku Kyei, Principal Pharmacist, Pharmacy Manager, Mrs. Augustina Dankyi, Pharmacy Accountant and Daniel Eledi, a Stores Assistant over alleged fraud.
They were part of nine staff members who were interdicted early this year over an alleged misappropriation of GH¢945, 574.29.
In an interaction with the DAILY HERITAGE in court yesterday, one of the lawyers, Godfred Odame said the parties are going to attempt the directive of the court. He was hopeful they would come to an amicable settlement and report back to the court.
Affidavit In an affidavit deposed to the court on Monday, June 22, 2015, lawyers for Mrs. Bruce noted that following an unlawful ‘forensic audit’ by a private firm of chartered accountants, pursuant to an unlawful appointment by the minister of health, their client was unlawfully interdicted on January 29, 2015 by management and Board of Korle-Bu without recourse to the mandatory provisions of the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospitals Act, 1996 (Act 525) and the Civil Service Regulations, 1960 (L. I. 47).
The complainant said after her interdiction, an Administrative Enquiry Committee was unlawfully set up by the hospital “to establish my culpability if any,” in the findings of the ‘forensic audit’ and that on April 10, 2015, she instituted a civil action in the same court for a number of reliefs endorsed on the motion paper (HRCM/263/15), yet the hospital authorities proceeded to terminate her appointment.
She was, therefore, of the conviction that the press statements purporting to dismiss her, issued by the Board and management of Korle-Bu, was calculated at interfering with and obstructing the due administration of justice and in the event, bring the authority of a court of competent jurisdiction into disrepute.
“This was because the validity of the basis of my purported dismissal was the very subject matter of the action which is currently pending before the court.”
Validity of dismissal The suit specifically seeks reliefs in the nature of a prohibition of the institution of disciplinary measures against Mrs Bruce by the hospital on the strength of what it believed to be the unlawful interdiction, an order of mandamus to compel the Board of Korle-Bu as an institution, to allow her to resume normal duties as the director of pharmacy of the hospital, as well as a prohibition of disciplinary proceedings on the basis of the purported ‘forensic audit’ and the administrative enquiry against her.
She said, they were fully aware of the pendency of the said action and in point of fact, the CEO of Korle-Bu, with the consent of the Board, filed an affidavit in opposition to her action on 22 May, 2015.
According to her, even though the Korle-Bu CEO swore an oath that the administrative enquiry ordered by the hospital was not “meant to punish any of the staff, including the Applicant,” and that the “Board has no intention to punish any of the staff as a result of the Administrative Enquiry,” just before the for hearing in accordance with Rule 67 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, C. I. 47, she heard that a copy of a letter purporting to dismiss her as director of pharmacy of Korle Bu was being read on Radio Gold, an Accra-based radio station.
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