Government has opened investigations into circumstances
surrounding a botched US$100 million deal to supply the country’s referral
hospitals with modern equipment.
Although Government continues to make payments, the bulk of
the equipment — secured through a deal brokered by the former President Robert
Mugabe-led administration — was never delivered.
Health and Childcare Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo confirmed to
The Sunday Mail that investigations were underway.
“Yes, we want to know, through the Special Anti-Corruption
Unit (Sacu), exactly what happened (in the US$100 million deal),” he said in a
terse response.
Sacu is a unit in the Office of the President and Cabinet.
Head of the corruption-busting body Mr Tabani Mpofu said
the unit would rope in other law-enforcement bodies as the scope of the probe
could broaden to include procurement deals in public hospitals.
“The Minister of Health (and Child Care) Dr Moyo has indeed
contacted the Special Anti-Corruption Unit and we are in the process of
constructing an action plan on the information he has provided,” he said.
“I cannot divulge the nature of the information provided to
the unit as it has to be passed to various law-enforcement agencies for a full
investigation, but I can confirm, in light of information received, remedial
action will be taken.”
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Separately, Sacu also said it had taken a keen interest
into the latest report by the Auditor-General and will accordingly institute
investigations where the need arises.
“As we have indicated before, the Special Anti-Corruption
Unit has taken interest in the Auditor-General’s report and the process of
taking corrective measures where necessary is well underway. The public will be
made aware of these in due course,” said Mr Mpofu.
In order to deal with the urgent situation in public
hospitals, Treasury has since released US$1 million, which will be used for
both medicines and equipment.
However, Dr Moyo emphasised the need for hospitals to
liaise and consult before making any purchases.
“We are going to solve quite a lot of issues as a result of
working together as a team. My office is open to everyone — health workers,
clients and patients and anyone can come and present their problems,” he told
senior doctors during a meeting at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals last week.
Government has also made arrangements with a company to pay
for medicines and surgical supplies in RTGS dollars.
“From the meeting, we asked the doctors to go to NatPharm
to assist with the adjudication. The company has a lot of products and once we
have finalised the arrangement, we will announce the items and quantities that
will have been delivered to NatPharm,” he said. Sunday Mail
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