African Woman and Child Feature Service

Even as Pumwani struggles with serious financial strains, there are allegations that some staff at the hospital and City Hall are draining the little collections the hospital gets from patients and well-wishers.

There seems to be a vicious and organised scheme to control the money collected and the imprest at the hospital by a group of individuals operating inside and outside the City Council of Nairobi.

In one of the cases, a hospital official is said to have claimed that a senior staff at City Hall demanded to be given Sh 100,000 every week for his personal use. By the time of the claim, the hospital was said to control weekly imprest of Sh 200,000 that is used to cater for emergencies.

Documents availed to AWCFS shows how some officers at the hospital have formed their own companies that supply the institution with goods and services at inflated prices.

In one such instance in December 2010, it is discernible from the handwriting on the documents that an officer generated the invoice of Sh 450,000, did the LPO and the payment voucher of the same amount for a company he owns, all by himself. Another transaction of over Sh 400,000 was paid to a different company by the same officer through a similar pattern.

In organizations where financial controls exist, generation of these documents are done by separate persons. For sometime, the hospital has been operating without an internal auditor, creating a conducive environment for the misappropriation of funds.

Sources within the hospital intimated to the AWCFS that there is a vicious struggle by some people at the hospital and the City Hall to control the finances of the hospital.

The hospital managers who have tried to bring sanity in the management of the resources have been hounded out. Staff who spoke to the Nation said those who are seen to stand in the way of this clique of individuals are either transferred or sacked.

A 2011 task force report on the running of the hospital has even raised concerns as to why money collected from the hospital is taken to City Hall for banking. Although it warns of under banking of such money, it was guarded on the details of how this might be happening.

Another area of corruption where the hospital might be losing money is non-payment of bills by patients. It is alleged that some staff members are bribed to allow clients with huge bills to escape from the hospital without paying. All these factors have combined to deny the hospital the crucial financial resources.