Inside Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital: Tales of Mismanagement, Malfeasance

The staff of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Awka, Anambra, are worried about the financial malfeasance that has gripped the institution since 2021, with the appointment of new leadership by the Willie Obiano administration, with allegations of financial impropriety and scarcity of drugs rocking the institution.

A source at the hospital alleged the institution has become a drain pipe for siphoning millions of naira through over-bloated salaries, hiked allowances and inflated imprest bills.
Documents obtained by THISDAY show salaries and wages rising sharply from 2021 without any commensurate expenditure. For example, an official voucher showed that in March and October 2021, salary increased from N81 million to N88 million.​
The December 2021 staff wages also raised suspicion.
“How come the salary increased from N81 million, N82 million, N84 million to N171 million (N87 million increment). Does it mean the staff strength doubled in December? We were not even paid any Christmas bonus in December. We received the same salary we got in December 2021,” claimed a worker in the hospital.
Investigations revealed that the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Joe Akabuike, erstwhile health commissioner, allocated N5 million monthly security vote for his office instead of N1.5 million approved by the government.
THISDAY checks revealed there was no framework for the security vote for the CMD and showed that the institution used to pay security men contracted from a private security outfit to guard the hospital and two gates leading into the facility. Previously, the money for security was N500,000.
Official documents obtained from the Office of the Secretary to the State Government indicated that the money was later increased to N1.5 million by the government after the former CMD wrote to express concerns about security in the hospital. Some persons suspected to be cultists were apprehended in the hospital in 2018, causing panic among staff. To guard against possible attacks, the then CMD applied for an increment in security funds. It was approved.
It was gathered that the past administration implemented the N1.5 million security fund until Akabuike came in March 2021 and hiked it to N5 million without any security add-ons.

Empty pharmacy

“I don’t even know why this is a government hospital any longer. The food is more expensive than outside. When you want to buy drugs, something that one should buy here at a cheaper rate, they always tell you they don’t have it,” said Adaeze Umeh, a patient at the hospital. “So, you have to go outside, where you will buy it at a high cost, yet you will not be assured of the quality. Go to the pharmacy section in this hospital. It is always empty, no drugs there.”
Several other people, in-patients and outpatients, complained about their inability to buy drugs at the institution’s pharmacy. For available drugs, people decry their prohibitive prices.
“If you look at the purchase of drugs in this hospital for last year, you will see that January, February, March and April followed a steady sum of drug supply. But from July 2021, it jumped to N17 million in November 2021,” a source in the hospital added. “So many contracts on drug procurement and supply went under the table. They did not follow due process and approval by the board. The board should perform its oversight function and request evidence of payment and supply of those drugs. The board should also request evidence of bidding for drug supplies which is the rule in government, and why there is no Drug revolving fund in the hospital. Drug procurement and supply has become a conduit pipe for siphoning money.”
Within two months that the CMD assumed office, he removed the head of the pharmacy and replaced him with a loyalist. The source alleged that the replacement is not a pharmacist but the CMD’s friend.
Disbursements on items that record zero expenditure in the past now run into millions of naira, said the source. Imprest and advances rose from N307,000 (when Akabuike assumed office) to N1.6 million in November 2021. Stationery expenditure moved from zero before Akabuike’s emergence as the CMD to N160,000 and later N400,000. It quickly jumped to N3.2 million in October 2021. Sources said there was no evidence of such expenditures in the hospital.

Patients forced to eat ‘expensive’ meals

There is also the issue of compulsory meals for in-patients which families and the sick do not consider cheap.​
In a petition to the Anambra government, Blessing Nnadozie accused the hospital of contracting the meals to Ofiaku Kitchen “to feed every admitted patient daily.”
“This feeding is compulsory at a whopping price of N700 per meal. That is, every patient in the hospital pays a compulsory N2,100 daily, whether you accept the food or not. You have no choice but to pay for it, according to how many days you spent in the hospital. It’s being coded in such a way that, once a patient is admitted, they start giving him/her food without making the cost known to the person,” explained Nnadozie in her petition. “Many always think that the food is free until the day the person will be discharged and the bill presented.”​
She called on Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra “to investigate this ugly information and intervene on behalf of the suffering patients.”​
The petitioner added, “Most of these patients are so poor that they hardly eat complete three square meals in their various homes, yet the hospital is using their sickness as an advantage to enrich Ofiaku Kitchen and some selfish persons in the hospital’s management.”
A nurse in the hospital, who spoke anonymously, said feeding patients cost N300 per meal until the management contracted Ofiaku Kitchen.

MDCAN’s revolt

On another front, the hospital has another crisis to tackle: the COOUTH chapter of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) threatened a showdown with the hospital management.
In a letter to a letter to the CMD dated April 12, 2022, MDCAN chastised the hospital management for reneging on its agreement in January 2020 for an improved pay package.
“As part of the bargain, the hospital management commenced the payment of the new salary emolument at 70 per cent implementation and pleaded with the MDCAN COOUTH Chapter that a full (100 per cent CONMESS) automatically be effective by January 2021,” said MDCAN. “However, the payment of 100 per cent CONMESS did not commence as promised, and the members were appealed to be patient in January 2022. As a responsible government that does not play with the health of her citizens, additional subventions were released to the hospital management to make sure health workers were adequately remunerated.”
The letter, however, noted: “To our greatest chagrin, when the February and March 2022 salaries were paid, what our esteemed members received was far below their expectation, and the shortfalls were not also paid. It is disheartening, to say the least, that the CMD turned around and labelled the document generated by the hospital management board an illegal document.”
Angered by the turn of events, the MDCAN gave the hospital management a 21-day ultimatum to comply with their demands, threatening to go on strike if the institution did not meet their demands.
However, the MDCAN chair, Prof. George Emechebe, disclosed that the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike, had waded into the matter.​
When THISDAY sought the views of the hospital’s board members, Prof. Edmund Nwanna said: “The allegations you just mentioned are not surprising to me because the structure of the place permits for things like that. You can call it executive rascality. The board is supposed to oversee the running of the hospital, but instead, the board was treated as if it didn’t matter.”
He added, “It was after the death of Basil Nwankwo that Akabuike, who was removed from office as commissioner and was literally hanging around in Awka, was appointed into office as CMD. His appointment was again made by Obiano without the board advertising the position and interviewing candidates. He is said to be a candidate of a Catholic bishop. All these CMDs see themselves as having been appointed by the governor, so they could play all sorts of pranks.”
He accused Akabuike of refusing to produce his letter of appointment and presenting a budget for the hospital before the board.
“There is a company called Health Station. It is a conduit for CMD. They (company) collect the revenue of the hospital and get a certain percentage. It is something that is run secretly between the CMD and the chairman of the board, and if you see the arrangement, it is so embarrassing. They collect revenue and take their percentage upfront,” Nwanna claimed. “They collect an inexplicable percentage, and it is clear that the CMD, the chairman and the company are up to something. We tried to probe Health Station in January, but when Soludo was sworn in, our administration came to an end. We are very sure there is a corrupt working relationship between health station, CMD and the chairman. We only got to know of the health station in January, and we were all taken aback. How come no one knew of this, it was obvious that something was going on.”

Will Gov. Soludo’s administration act?

When contacted, Obidike denied knowledge of the allegations.
“Embezzlement of fund(s) in a public office is not a new allegation. But you know we just came on board. I believe the hospital has external auditors, and it is their job to find out about the allegations. For us as a new government, what we want to do in the health sector is to champion service delivery in all government hospitals,” said the health commissioner. “That is the agenda of the governor. We want a situation where people can enter the hospital and get service in real-time.”
Speaking on the compulsory feeding in the hospital, the commissioner said, “As for the meal, I have gotten the CMD to discuss this, and we have looked at it. But the hospital management tried to convince us on the need for it. Patients are on a particular diet in that hospital. Some patients are on drugs that are timed, and most times a doctor cannot do his work because the patient has not eaten, so the need for internal feeding became important.”
The commissioner regretted that despite the size of the hospital and patronage, the hospital could not pay staff’s salaries.
“They can’t even pay half of the people there. It is the government that pays them,” added the health commissioner. “This is a letdown.”
When told that despite the inability to pay salaries, the CMD collects N5 million for security vote, the commissioner said he had only seen documents indicating that the CMD spent between N3 million and N4 million on security.
Akabuike did not respond to repeated calls and messages requesting his reaction to the allegations against him. He also failed to keep an appointment scheduled with him by THISDAY.
In March, Akabuike invited journalists to celebrate his first year in office. While leading a hospital tour, he said the hospital was among the best hospital in the country with adequate facilities.
“Ordinarily, we are doing this to project this hospital to Ndi Anambra and Nigeria at large. This is the only tertiary institution of the state. We started as a general hospital, a special hospital and now a teaching hospital,” he had stated. “I want to say that this hospital is one of the best hospitals in the country.”