Latest update November 23rd, 2024 1:00 AM
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Cabinet to GPHC Board – “Khan must go home”
– Chairman says Board abiding by instructions
Cabinet has taken a decision to send home Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Mr Michael Khan. This publication was reliably informed that Khan will serve out months of accumulated leave at home, after which his contract as CEO will not be renewed.
GPHC’s CEO Michael Khan, at yesterday’s press conference
Next week Friday will be Khan’s last working day in his office at the public hospital. His leave will commence on the following Monday and come to an end in July 2017.
This state of affairs was confirmed yesterday by Chairman of the Hospital’s Board of Directors, Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman, at a press conference convened a the hospital’s Dialysis Centre.
Khan who attended the press conference yesterday insisted that he was not being sent home because of any wrongdoing as was reported in the media but rather because he has accumulated leave and legally must take it.
“That is not entirely accurate,” Dr. Hanoman clarified yesterday, to which Khan injected “I am being politically correct.”
Dr. Hanoman shared that Khan was perhaps attending the final press conference in his capacity as CEO.
When questioned yesterday, the Board Chairman said that he was in receipt of correspondence informing that Cabinet had taken a decision to send Khan home. But Hanoman intimated that the letter did not share details of the specific reason(s) for the decision.
He related that since being appointed as Chairman of the Board, he has ensured that the Board functioned in the best interest of the organisation. He however added “we cannot go against the decision of the Government. Cabinet has said that Mr. Khan will be on leave till the end of his contract…they have written to me that he has to go, and I have written to him (Khan) informing that Cabinet says you have to go…”
But according to Dr. Hanoman, “I had plans for Mr. Khan until the end of November.” The plans referenced by the Chairman, entail Khan overseeing a number of projects that are already in progress.
“The Board is of the view, at the moment, that we have numerous projects that we cannot disrupt,” Dr. Hanoman had earlier told this publication.
He added “because we cannot disrupt progress at this moment, we have to stick with one who has institutional memory; so that we can get the best results at the hospital…our idea is to see what is best for the hospital as we go forward.”
The Chairman also noted yesterday that it was his expectation that the CEO would have been able to groom a Deputy CEO. The hospital is currently seeking applications for the new position of a Deputy CEO, and Dr. Hanoman said yesterday “we will have an array of people to choose from…I had hoped that when we got the Deputy that could have learnt from him (Khan), but I am not going against Cabinet.”
Despite some calls for Khan to be terminated following the release of an audit report on the operation of the public hospital, Dr. Hanoman said that he made the decision to retain Khan because of his vast institutional knowledge.
When asked to comment on the decision for him to be sent home, Khan yesterday re-directed questions to the Chairman, pointing out that the Board was privy to a meeting with the auditor, which suggested that he committed no wrongdoing.
Dr. Hanoman in response said that “I can only go with what is presented to me…I don’t have any ulterior motive. A report was sent to me, I asked some questions, and if I didn’t find a fault what am I to do? I have no agenda to keep Mr Khan; I wanted somebody who can do the work.”
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