Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) is appalled by the revelations made in the NewsDiggers edition of Friday 6th August 2021, to the effect that the Ministry of Health (MoH) allegedly duped the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) into fraudulently awarding a contract worth US$8.5 million last year. The revelations if true make very sad reading as they yet again put the MoH in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Zambians will remember that the MoH has been at the centre of scandal after scandal when it comes to corruption and blatant theft of public resources, and it appears there is no limit to how much wrong is done at that Ministry.
At a time when the country was and continues to battle a deadly pandemic that has taken the lives of thousands of Zambians, it beggars belief that some public officials would choose to defraud the country out of millions of dollars as shown by the NewsDiggers revelation.
TI-Z would like to remind the public that in September last year, we released a report from a short-term project we implemented stating that there were gaps within Zambia’s COVID-19 response and that if those gaps were not addressed, there existed real potential for theft to occur. These latest revelations, along with the Auditor General’s special COVID report last year which revealed the theft of K1.3 billion worth of COVID funds through dubious contracts, show that no lessons were learnt by the MoH and that the theft of public resources there continued unabated.
TI-Z would like to urge the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and other law enforcement agencies to institute investigations into these latest revelations in order to get to the bottom of the issue and to see to it that all erring officials are made to account for their actions. As a nation, we are tired of the seemingly never-ending impunity that appears to have taken root at the MoH and it is high time this blatant theft of public resources was brought to a stop. Our fear is that the revelations coming out are just a tip of the iceberg and we therefore urge that the investigation we are calling for be a comprehensive one that looks into the entire modus operandi of the Ministry.
We also note that last year’s Auditor General’s special report on COVID made 10 recommendations, which included full adherence to the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act and the taking of punitive action against erring officers. We challenge the Ministry to tell the nation how many of those recommendations have been implemented and what measures they have put in place to address the corruption problem that appears to have become endemic at the Ministry.
Lastly, TI-Z wishes to encourage public officials tasked with the responsibility of managing public resources to conduct themselves with the highest degree of integrity in discharging their functions. Zambia can ill-afford to lose any of its much needed resources to corruption, and those public officials with access to these resources represent our first line of defence in that regard.
Maurice K. Nyambe
TI-Z Executive Director
