Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1496 - 1118: Strength Comes from Lack of Desire

Chapter 1496: Chapter 1118: Strength Comes from Lack of Desire

The equipment procurement and infrastructure projects at Sanbo Hospital have really been too much in recent years, involving amounts in the billions. The task force’s workload is gigantic. They are under immense pressure and must meticulously investigate and verify each item, and also interview those involved, facing dual pressure from public opinion and superiors, they dare not be careless.

The superior’s intentions are clear, with zero tolerance for corruption. The investigation adheres to the principle of seeking truth from facts, neither wronging nor covering up, with the goal of making everything crystal clear.

During the isolation period, Dean Xia was not at all afraid. He continued to eat, drink, and sleep well every day, perhaps this is what it means to be strong when free of desires. His only concern was the potential impact on Sanbo Hospital because of this incident. Given Yang Ping’s current status, the likelihood of him being affected was minimal, at most he might be in a bad mood, but Sanbo Hospital was too fragile. The former system was held together by his personal authority, but once he leaves, how the system will function and how long it can sustain is a significant issue.

The task force staff were meticulous. They began by examining the procurement prices of large equipment, obtaining the procurement prices of identical products in many hospitals at the same period, and compared them one by one against those at Sanbo Hospital, hoping to find a breakthrough from this angle.

However, after detailed and rigorous comparisons, the task force was shocked. They even doubted the authenticity of the data they obtained. After repeated verification, the data was indeed real. Because the same machines and equipment were purchased for ten million at Sanbo Hospital, while in several other hospitals it ranged from fifteen million to sixty million. The largest gap was actually fifty million. Sanbo Hospital had the lowest procurement prices. All contracts, financial transfer records, etc., were perfectly in order, with nothing suspicious.

During Dean Xia’s tenure, the office expenses for Sanbo Hospital were also the lowest. Every time he went out for meetings, only the basic transportation, accommodation, and meal expenses were reimbursed. Official banquets were held in the cafeteria, all other banquets outside the cafeteria had to be paid for by himself. The hospital had strict standards for official banquets and set a strict budget for annual official expenditures, anything exceeding this budget had to be paid from his own pocket.

Even the average price for infrastructure was the lowest, and the contract terms clearly stated that if workers’ wages were delayed, Sanbo Hospital would stop paying the progress funds. Such terms were unprecedented for the task force. Many bosses scrambled to do infrastructure projects for Sanbo Hospital, because the profits were high, there was no delaying payments, as long as the quality of work was ensured, settlements were prompt, not a penny left unpaid, this was renowned in the industry.

As the investigation deepened, it became perplexing. Ten years without finding any problem, not even an extravagant meal, it’s no wonder he dared slam the table, even when isolated for examination, he still ate, drank, and slept well.

The article accusing him mentioned he arranged relatives into the hospital, but it turned out it was just one disabled relative arranged in the hospital’s Logistics Department as a seamstress mending the White Gowns, no other relatives were arranged for work in the hospital.

The operating of some hospital shops were all in cooperation with government poverty alleviation departments, rented to impoverished households recommended by the government, or to families of public officers who sacrificed.

The deeper you dig, the clearer it becomes, the more you investigate this person, the more positive energy emerges, the task force had never seen such a situation before, everyone couldn’t help but feel reverence for Dean Xia.

The task force leader rushed overnight to report to the superior leadership, the superior sighed and said: "Xia Changjiang, actually I am still familiar with him, he has done many solid things and offended quite a few people. If such an honest person meets a bad end, I won’t rest easy even after retirement."

The task force leader had handled countless major cases and had rich experience, yet now he was completely bewildered, he couldn’t resist asking Dean Xia a rather childish question: "In these past ten years, with so many projects going through your hands in the hospital, have you never been tempted?"

"What would I do with so much money? I have a salary, my wife has a salary, and my daughter has consistently excelled academically. I don’t worry about her getting into a good university. She has such strong ability; I’m also not worried about her finding a good job. So why would I be hanging on tenterhooks scrambling for money?"

Even if Dean Xia was thoroughly investigated, no problems were found, the task force finally could wrap up, they had a clear account to their superiors and the media. Yet public opinion online still refused to relent, questioning how Dean Xia, being a dean for so many years and handling so much equipment and infrastructure, could possibly have a clean record, doubting the investigation’s conclusions, alleging someone shielded Dean Xia. Clearly, in outsiders’ view, these people seemed righteous, but were merely hoping to leverage public pressure to overthrow Dean Xia.

After the investigation results were released, the leadership was also quite satisfied, Xia Changjiang indeed lived up to expectations. No matter the public opinion, the investigation adhered to the principle of seeking truth from facts, absolutely not influenced by public opinion, lest it devolve into chaos where whoever creates a fuss is deemed reasonable.

Given the facts, the superior leaders, under the pressure of public opinion, restored Dean Xia to his original position, calming the storm.

Although Dean Xia was fine, other hospital directors were in trouble, because when investigating Dean Xia, contracts and bank payment records for identical equipment in those hospitals were also compared, revealing a maximum discrepancy of as much as fifty million. Where did such a large discrepancy go, the task force was not foolish, they understood internally.

Upholding the principle of zero tolerance for corruption, the task force began investigations into those hospitals. Several directors and deputy directors fell, one was only a month away from retirement, and another had already retired for two years.

Dean Xia returned to the dean’s office, seeing the familiar desk, he was filled with mixed feelings. After undergoing this event, he was more determined and filled with confidence, resolved to take bold actions while he could still accomplish something, to run Sanbo Hospital well. He also realized the importance of establishing a good system for Sanbo Hospital. Facing so many temptations, not everyone can remain pure and resist temptation like him; most people might lose themselves in the face of temptation, forgetting their original intentions.

He looked again at the hospital management reform draft he initially wrote, finding it quite naive, not very mature, yet couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the problems lay. Over the years, he had been pondering the issue of hospital reform, had imagined many scenarios, but when it came to writing a comprehensive reform plan, he surprisingly felt himself so lacking in knowledge about hospital management.

After this storm subsided, for some unknown reason Director Qin suddenly had an epiphany. He actively sought out Dean Xia, offering to step down to let young talented people rise, and gradually several stubborn directors also softened, expressing willingness to cooperate with hospital reform, willing to make way for the young. Dean Xia never expected this storm could unexpectedly result in such a gain.