By Politico staff writer
The Anti-corruption Commission has on the 8th of September 2021 presented systems review report on the Serabu Community Hospital after donor partners, the German Doctors threatened to withdraw their support from the hospital effective 1st August 2021 over corruption allegations and weak management structures. The report covers January 2019 to June 2021.
In a letter which was addressed to the Bishop of the Bo Diocese which owns and runs the facility, German Doctors alleged that the hospital faced both structural and corruption problems as observed by them while they had been working there.
They said this had persisted despite efforts by the diocese to address the concerns which border mainly an “independent audit to clarify the different corruption issues”, adding “problems remain and others have worsened.”
The letter states that: “In light of the theft of medicines in 2019, the reports by GD’s long term doctor on widespread structural corruption in 2020, and the results of the audit report at the end of 2020 that verified most of the accusations, it was disappointing to see that the clearly needed reform process has not been properly implemented”.
The organization also notes that the latest “violation” of procurement guidelines was in the recruitment process of three management positions in which they weren’t involved and the relevant documents were not produced despite requests.
Speaking to Politico, Patrick Sandi, the Director of Public Education and Outreach at the anti-graft Agency said they intervened in the corruption allegations put forward by the German doctors by conducting a systems review of the practices and procedures and not an investigation.
He said they engaged the hospital management, the board and German Doctors through an online meeting, and stated their findings did not reveal any blatant corruption which would have made them do further investigations.
“On the conclusion of the review, we realized that there was a weak management system and therefore had to make recommendations to improve on those issues,” he said.
Part of the issues discovered he said had to do with incompetence, lack of trained personnel like the store person, pharmacists and inefficient security systems to protect the drugs and other hospital items.
He revealed that a total of Seventy- three (73) validated recommendations were proffered, among which were for the management of Serabu community hospital to establish a functional Procurement Unit charged with the responsibility of all procurements processes.
He said the report was sent to both the hospital management and German Doctors and that the commission will be going to check on the hospital management in three months period to see if the recommendations were followed.
However, he was hopeful that the Greman Doctors may reverse their decision of withdrawing support from the hospital if the right systems are in place and procedures adhered to or else it would have a devastating effect on the community it is serving.
In his statement at the presentation of the report, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bo, His Lordship Charles Campbell said he now understands better what has been going on at the hospital. He promised that positive steps will be taking to advert future such re-occurrence.
Copyright © 2021 Politico (10/09/21)
