The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care will dismiss and prosecute individuals behind the misappropriation of Government funds at Mnene Mission Hospital in Mberengwa, Deputy Minister, Dr Paul Chimedza, has said.Mnene Hospital, which is Mberengwa’s biggest referral hospital servicing 35 clinics and four rural hospitals, received about $700 000 from Government in 2011 under the targeted approach programme, a special fund crafted to revive the health sector.
The Lutheran Church-run institution has allegedly failed to account for the money after flouting tenders as well as inflating prices of some of the equipment procured under the programme.
In 2012, Mnene subcontracted a Bulawayo-based company, Food Miles, to renovate the administration block, maternity, female and male wards, the outpatient and opportunistic infection departments, the kitchen, main stores, waiting mothers’ shelters, nurses’ training school, pharmacy department, mortuary, laundry department and the laboratory for $180 000 without going to tender.
The company was also supposed to rehabilitate the water and sewer systems replacing old pipes as well as repairing electrical fittings at the institution and the whole project was supposed to be completed within six months.
Food Miles also received close to $20 000 to acquire an X-ray processer.
However, Food Miles disappeared with the money.
Mnene also paid another Bulawayo-based company $180 000 to acquire an X-ray machine in 2012 and received a dysfunctional machine.
It later emerged that the actual price of an X-ray machine was $30 000.
Dr Chimedza, who toured Mnene Hospital last week, said the ministry was investigating Mnene for allegedly misusing public funds.
He said heads would roll at the Lutheran Church-run institution.
“As ministry we fail to understand why Mnene hospital has been negligent in handling public funds at the expense of service delivery. We suspect that someone might be behind all this. To me it looks like sabotage and it needs to be corrected.
“We are very particular about how the public funds are handled that is why you saw Government taking action on PSMAS. We will prosecute everyone who had a hand in the misuse of funds at Mnene. We are going to dismiss everyone. We expect people to do what they get paid for.
“We do not want a situation where people blame the Government for poor health service delivery when there are individuals who sabotage Government by either misusing or underutilising resources allocated to them to improve service delivery,” he said.
Dr Chimedza said Mnene would have to submit monthly reports to Government to ensure that they recover the money and put it to proper use.
He said the ministry would soon descend on all public health institutions that were misappropriating and embezzling public funds that the institutions received under the targeted approach programme in 2012.
“We have seen a similar situation though at a lesser magnitude at Mberengwa Hospital where we had new generators lying idle for over 16 years. The kitchen is not functional. The resources are scarce therefore we cannot afford to waste them or underutilise them.
“We are making follow-ups at all institutions that received money under the targeted approach to ensure that the money was put to proper use. We are touring hospitals in all provinces. We have already toured Masvingo and Midlands,” said Dr Chimedza.
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Harare Central, Mpilo, Ingutsheni, United Bulawayo Hospitals, Chitungwiza, Masvingo and Mutare provincial hospitals also benefited from the special fund crafted to revive the health sector.
