By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Anti-Corruption Commission has opened an investigation into corruption allegations levied against the management of Serabu Community Hospital in Bo district by the hospital’s donor partners -, ‘German Doctors’ (GD).
The Charity, in a letter addressed to the Bishop of the diocese of Bo which owns and manages the facility said they would cease cooperation with the community hospital effective 1st August 2021 if they were not assured that corruption and other management problems would be addressed.
The GD alleged that the hospital faced both structural and corruption problems as observed by them while working there. They said this had persisted despite efforts by the diocese to address those 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.
They say the donors also received a report from a short-term doctor who worked with the Community Health Officers without gloves and medicines to administer treatment to patients, which they say is unacceptable because the organization has been doing all they can to provide the resources needed to provide quality healthcare service to the vulnerable community.
A non-governmental organization named Bumpeh-Gao Development Organization also called on the anti-graft agency, the ACC to look into the corruption allegation so that vulnerable communities benefiting from the facility don’t suffer.
These concerns are what prompted the ACC to launch a system review with the mandate that the team will report to the commission the corruption identified in the management of the hospital. An ACC statement says they are “reviewing the hospital’s systems and processes in accordance with the with section 7 (2) (c) (g) (h) of the Anti-Corruption Act 2008 as amended in 2019 which mandates the commission to review practices and procedures in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) persons, authorities and public bodies and private sector institutions in order to identify corruptions in order to identify corruption vulnerabilities and make recommendations to improve on efficiency and effective service delivery”.
The statement noted that the commission will work with the Serabu Community Hospital Management Board to review the systems and processes with the aim of discovering systems failure and to secure revisions of those practices that pose corruption risk.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (29/07/21)
