Hospital gets assistance

THE Southern Highlands governor’s office has assured the Mendi General Hospital board and management it will receive its vehicle for rural outreach services, as well as the promised K250,000.
A member of Governor Anderson Agiru’s staff, Nicholas Sambu, said this in response to reports a vehicle and money promised for the hospital had not been delivered.
The hospital board and management had raised concern last Friday that the K250,000 that had been allocated for the hospital by the provincial government in last year’s budget had been presented three weeks ago.
Hospital chief executive officer Joseph Turian claimed the money had gone into Sambu’s hands and had yet to be handed over to the hospital.
Turian said the hospital rural outreach services were put on hold because of transport problems.
He said a vehicle presented by Agiru in February was with Sambu.
He said the vehicle, which was presented during the provincial executive council meeting in Mendi, had been intended for the outreach services.
He claimed Sambu had picked up the car at Ela Motors in Mt Hagen and although advised to officially hand it over to the hospital, had used it for his own purposes for a month before crashing it.
He said it would have cost K53,000 to repair the vehicle.
Sambu said the accusations were false and the vehicle was “in the course of delivery to the hospital” while the K250,000 bank cheque was being finalised.
 “Any vehicle purchased is always presented while the cheques are ready, but there are rules to follow when making such presentations,” he said.
He said the banks were imposing “all kinds of laws” and “we are trying to make it easy for the hospital to access the money”.
He admitted the vehicle “had a small dent on the side and can be fixed” and had been delivered to a workshop.