Sacked Korle-Bu HR Director Fights Back

Eddie Annan
Sacked Director of Human Resources (HR) at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Tahir Abdul-Islam Mahmoud, is said to be maneuvering for a comeback after his forceful removal from office.

He has therefore petitioned the Minister of Health against the decision of the hospital's Board, headed by former flagbearer hopeful of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Eddie Annan.

In a long petition dated May 24, 2014 and sent to the then Minister of Health, Sherry Ayittey, Mr. Mahmoud accused the Board and the then Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Reverend Albert Okpoti Botchwey – who has himself been relieved of his appointment by the Minister but still hanging on - of being victimized.

Even though his appointment as head of the hospital's Human Resource Department did not have terminal clause indicating when his term of office would specifically end, Mahmoud was virtually frustrated and hounded out of post for allegedly refusing to kowtow to their demands for the employment of party faithful and church members.

Reasons
In the said petition he stated, 'He' (referring to Rev. Okpoti Botchwey) 'had at several meetings with me (some in the presence of his so-called constituency members), sought to order me to employ so-called constituency members, his church members (indeed there is proof one church member is currently at post) which I had conveniently ignored.'

According to the embattled HR Director, it was for this reason that he was seen as an obstacle to the CEO's political ambition.

He also accused the Board Chairman of directly interfering in the appointment of the Deputy Head of the Human Resource Department who he (Mahmoud) alleged is a relative or family friend of Eddie Annan, even though according to him, he 'did not meet the criteria for the appointment even by the terms of our adverts in the media (and indeed was at the same level as the least qualified of my HR Managers in terms of competence, as later events showed.'

The petition underscored, 'The short-listing of the gentleman was done by the then Acting Chief Executive (a protégé of the present one) without my knowledge and I was at several meetings with the Board Chairman who was coerced to accept the gentleman and teach him on the job', he narrated.

In one of such instances, the removed Director of Human Resource stated, 'The Board Chairman sought to prevent me from acting as secretary to the panel that interviewed candidates for the position of the current Director of Finance (another pre-ordained staff) and indeed he ordered me out of the interview room after the interview' and 'later presented with a pencil-written score sheet and ordered to prepare a report.'

Aside that, Mahmoud stressed the belief that his protest against procedural errors in the elevation of the Personal Assistant of the then Acting CEO to the position of Deputy Director in a memo purely without malice or hatred to the occupant of the position, also accounted for his dismissal since according to him, 'this was interpreted by the Board Chairman as a challenge to his authority because he was instrumental in approving the appointment.'

He also saw his refusal to prepare an appointment letter for what he described as the 'illegal appointment' of Godfred Ahianyo – a Board member who was made chairman of a three-member restructuring committee whose appointment raised concerns amongst staff of the hospital.

Demands
The sacked Director of Human Resource Department of the nation's premier hospital is therefore seeking a revocation of a supposed committee report which cited him for insubordination, and investigations into same, whiles asking for full compensation for wrongful termination of his appointment.

He has also asked the Ministry of Health to conduct 'full investigations into the recruitment of all high-profile and low-level staff in the past one-and-a-half years to establish whether there was a conflict of interest, and follow due process.'

By Charles Takyi-Boadu