COPE furious over non-compliance of directives by J’Pura Hospital Board
Professor Ranjith Bandara, Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) took stern exception at the non-compliance by the Board of Sri Jayawardenapura General Hospital at directives issued at COPE's previous meeting, said Parliament's Communications Department.
• No Acceptable Corporate Plan despite repeated requests.
The meeting commenced with the Chairman being extremely critical of the fact that despite repeated requests for a corporate plan to be submitted, there was still no officially submitted plan. On the investigation of the committee, the meeting took a deeper turn into the very nature of the model of the hospital. It seemed that between the Board and the Ministry officials, no one had a clear idea of what model the hospital was aspiring to adopt. The Chairman queried the lack of a business unit, a Human Resource Department, A marketing or business development Department. He repeatedly asked the Board if it was a government hospital, a profit-making public enterprise, or a hybrid of the two. Following much scrutiny, the Hospital Board admitted that that had yet to be ascertained in consultation with all stakeholders present.
Further, there was widespread confusion with regards to the Recruitment process as the Managerial Services Department had not been consulted or informed of supposed recruitments that had taken place by the Board. At the very least there was no official Statement of Requirement (SOR) to justify the recruitment, which was a clear violation of the Act which governs the hospital.
After a lengthy and extensive scrutiny by the Chairman and members of the COPE, it was decided by the Chairman to appoint a sub-committee from COPE to expeditiously decide what model the hospital should aspire to adopt following the necessary due diligence. Following this the Chairman further directed that the composition of a subsequent Corporate Plan be outsourced to a professional entity instead of the ad-hoc one presented to the COPE.
• Directives issued at the last COPE meeting not adhered to
The Secretary was directed to report on the measures taken by the Hospital Board within 01 month following the last COPE meeting. It was confirmed by the Auditor General’s report that no progress was made in this regard.
A report was also requested for the appointment of professionals on a managerial level to be appointed to the Board as a measure to pivot on the loss-making history of the entity. The appointment procedure was also requested for; however, no progress was made in this regard.
• Comedy of errors leading to the Surveying of the lands owned by the hospital.
The original survey conducted by the Survey General’s department is extensive and exact. However since then, squatters had encroached on portions of the land and had been tolerated. In 2015, when the need for new building structures to be constructed was explored, the need for the land survey was required. Inexplicably, the Board claims that the original survey was not to be found. Following this, a private surveyor was contracted to conduct the land survey.
Miraculously, the original survey was found shortly after.
However, in the new survey that had been completed under the auspices of the Director and the Board, the land illegally claimed by the squatters was not included, although it was land rightfully owned by the Hospital.
To rectify this, the Chairman directed that the afore mentioned COPE appointed sub-committee would make this matter of high priority and come up with an equitable solution.
The Board was instructed to re-appear before the COPE committee on 20-06-2023 to submit the action plan. Further, on 20-07-2023, the COPE appointed sub-committee would summon the Board to discuss the land issue and the non-issuance of the requested reports.
The Chairman of the COPE ended the meeting by noting the precious value of the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital. Observing that even in this day and age, a coronary by-pass can still be done for under a million rupees, he urged the Director to get his house in order and urgently prioritize the need for vision and a proper corporate direction. He encouraged the Board to do all in their powers to fight for this institute to turn its fortunes around and made special mention that the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital should be the gold standard of hospitals in Sri Lanka with similar models being adopted in other parts of the country.
Prof. Ranjith Bandara (Chair), Indika Anuruddha Herath, Shantha Bandara, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Eran Wickremaratne, Jayantha Samaraweera, Sanjeeva Edirimanna, Jagath Kumara Sumithraarachchi, Major Sudarshana Denipitiya, Premnath Dolawatte, Madhura Withanage and Prof. Charitha Herath M.P. were present.
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