CHIEF Covid-19 coordinator Agnes Mahomva’s sudden removal
from the Ministry of Health and Child Care after a short-lived tenure as permanent
secretary was the culmination of fierce clashes with Health minister Obadiah
Moyo and several other officials over her refusal to sanction irregular
expenditure and tamper with lucrative tenders.
Mahomva, a vastly experienced medical doctor, was
dramatically jettisoned from the ministry on Tuesday, after having served just
over a year before a new role was created for her.
She was appointed permanent secretary in the ministry by
President Emmerson Mnangagwa in April last year.Chief Secretary to the
President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda did not give reasons for Mahomva’s
re-assignment to a seemingly temporary posting when he announced the decision
on behalf of Mnangagwa on Tuesday.
The Zimbabwe Independent can now reveal a series of
incidents leading to her removal, including dramatic personal confrontations
with Moyo.
According to information at hand, Mahomva had a tumultuous
tenure at the ministry where she was always at loggerheads with Moyo.
According to sources at the ministry, Mahomva showed no
respect for the minister and always stood up to him in meetings, leading to bad
blood between them.
Relations deteriorated severely at the onset of the
coronavirus pandemic as the two viciously clashed on how to respond to the
crisis.
“The two could not work together. They have been having
serious fights at the ministry especially on the issue of how to handle the
Covid-19 pandemic. They were pulling in completely different directions. She
also had serious clashes with some senior directors in the ministry,” an
official at the ministry said.
“She would scrutinise every document and wanted to have
control of the ministry’s finances, accusing people of being corrupt.”
The source added that Mahomva also frequently clashed with
former family-health director in the ministry Bernard Madzima, who was
subsequently moved to head the National Aids Council as chief executive officer
last month, as well as with the director of the Aids and Tuberculosis Unit, Owen
Mugurungi, both of whom could not be reached for comment this week.
“The likes of Mugurungi and Madzima were no longer
signatories of their divisional grants because she would want to go through
every document to see if everything was in order. As you can see, there was no
way she could have survived because she stepped on too many toes,” another
source said.
“Then there is the issue of travel and subsistence
allowances. There is a maximum set by Treasury, but the senior officials would
demand more and she would refuse.”
Additionally, sources said, Moyo and Mahomva clashed
viciously last week over the issue of relaxed working conditions for health
personnel, commonly known as flexitime.
Flexitime was introduced as a result of a collective
bargaining agreement in January 2019 to allow nurses and doctors to report for
duty two or three times per week in view of low remuneration.
Moyo and Mahomva’s conflict over this issue arose after
Cabinet, on May 5, decided to cancel the flextime following the declaration of
the pandemic as a state of disaster by Mnangagwa.
Sources said Moyo on Tuesday last week had a meeting with
members of the Health Apex Council — the umbrella representative body for
health sector employees — where he assured them that flexitime would be
maintained, notwithstanding the standing cabinet decision of May 5.
Barely 48 hours later, they also met with Mahomva, who told
them there was no way flexitime could be upheld since the President had
declared a national disaster.
Investigations further revealed that relations between Moyo
and Mahomva deteriorated sharply last week after she cancelled tenders, which
had been awarded to two companies, a local and a Chinese firm that specialises
in solar energy (names supplied), for the supply of Covid-19 test kits.
She also cancelled a tender which had been awarded to a
Harare tertiary institution.Sources privy to the developments said the solar
company’s tender was cancelled because the company had allegedly brought
invalidated kits, while the local company had no experience in this line of
work. It also did not have banking details. The tertiary institute had failed
to supply evidence of a bank guarantee as required when bidding for such
tenders.
“She said no, we are dealing with a serious crisis and we
need to be serious about it and cancelled the deals,” an official said.However,
no sooner had Mahomva left the ministry than the tenders were awarded.
An official ministry document seen by the Independent,
dated May 13, shows the two companies were among a list of firms that were
immediately awarded the tenders on Wednesday, barely 24 hours after Mahomva’s
abrupt removal.
“With her out of the ministry, you can guess what’s
happening to documents,” a source said.Sources further said a spirited campaign
to discredit her by some ministry officials had gathered momentum in the past
three weeks.
“They basically went to the President to say she had failed
to fulfil her key deliverables as permanent secretary. They also claimed she
had not met procurement timelines and, as such, frustrated efforts to test more
people than those already tested. They also accused her of being an activist on
the payroll of some American-funded non-governmental organisation,” another
source said.
“They also said since her appointment, she had not yet
procured anything from funds disbursed by Treasury and, as such, only funds
coming from donors were being used while she sat on Treasury allocations.”
Efforts to get comments from Mahomva were fruitless as she
claimed to be locked in meetings on Wednesday and Thursday while she also did
not respond to messages sent to her mobile number.
Moyo was not answering calls. Zimbabwe Independent
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