The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has opened investigations into laboratories and individuals accused of issuing certificates declaring a person free of Covid-19 without carrying out any tests, thus allowing potentially infected people to travel and interact with others, allowing the virus to spread.
Those with information that could help in the
investigations should contact investigators, the commission’s deputy
chairperson Mr Kuziva Murapa has said.
There have been reports that at least one private
laboratory and some State laboratories, or at least staff at these
laboratories, have been issuing certificates and sets of fake results without
doing the required test.
The Herald and The Sunday Mail sent reporters to seek such
certificates and so establishing that results were being cooked up in favour of
travellers and other people who need to travel outside the country.
The Sunday Mail reporters went undercover and were asked to
pay US$45 for a certified negative Covid-19 result at a private laboratory,
Klosad Clinical Diagnostics Lab in Avondale. Recently, a Herald reporter was
issued with a certificate at Chitungwiza Hospital showing he had tested
negative to Covid-19, when no test had been done. He paid US$20 for the
service.
The Herald report exposed the fake Covid-19 results scam at
Chitungwiza Central Hospital and Sally Mugabe Hospital.
Some suspects have since been charged and the Ministry of
Health and Child Care is processing disciplinary proceedings in terms of the
labour law.
Most results are tampered with to show the clients will be
Covid-19 negative when no test would have been done. There are suspicions that
some laboratory staff may go further and issue a fraudulent certificate showing
favourable results.
Mr Murapa said, based on media reports, ZACC took an
interest and launched investigations into the scandal.
“Although we have not yet received a formal report, we have
taken interest in the matter and opened investigations to establish the truth.
We cannot sit and relax while such corrupt elements break the law with impunity
and put everyone at risk of contracting the virus through fake results.
“Investigations are underway and we appeal to all those
with information that may help the investigator to contact us through our
WhatsApp number or on www.zacconline/tipoff. If the informants want to remain
anonymous, their protection is guaranteed,” said Mr Murapa.
There is a report on social media, by someone claiming to
be a Zimbabwean wishing to travel to East Africa, accusing at least one
employee of Lancet Clinical Laboratories of soliciting for a bribe to alter a
positive Covid-19 result to a negative result for a fee, although two
subsequent tests showed the result was indeed negative, implying that the scam
was to generate a fake positive result to get extra money to alter it to a true
negative.
According to the testimony trending on social media, the
Zimbabwean traveller went from Zambia to Harare on January 21 after testing
negative to Covid-19. In Harare the traveller claims to have visited Lancet for
a new Covid-19 test to travel to Ghana.
Results at Lancet showed the traveller had tested positive to Covid-19. But at the gate, an employee approached the traveller offering to alter the result to negative for a fee.
The traveller refused and went to Genau Laboratory and
tested negative, which was the result used for travelling and then went to
Accra where another test was done confirming the result at Genau in Zimbabwe.
Lancet Clinical Laboratories on Monday issued a statement
saying internal investigations were underway to flush out the corrupt employee
who approached the traveller.
“We take any allegations of attempted fraud seriously and
have launched an internal investigation into the allegations that a member of
our staff offered to change test results and we will issue a public statement
once investigations are over.
“In the meantime, we would like to assure the public that
our results come directly from our lab testing equipment and cannot be altered
after the fact. There is no room for human error or trickery in the issuance of
results once they are determined in the lab,” reads the statement. Herald
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