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ON VACATION WHILE EMASWATI DIE

23/06/2024 07:21:00 Editor

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I guess we can all agree that it is now time for heads to roll on the medical drugs procurement matter.

That course of action is actually long overdue and delaying it any further would be tantamount to being complicit in the crimes allegedly committed. I am saying this because the culprits who have led us, as a nation, to the medical drugs shortage that has seen many emaSwati dying unnecessarily are now known. Some of them are owners of companies that were engaged to procure medicine and other medical supplies on behalf of government while others are civil servants.

Some of these criminals, for that is exactly what they are, went on fully paid-for vacations in holiday destinations outside the country using money they obtained from their partners in crime. That is if the Funduzi Forensic Services Audit Report is anything to go by. Funduzi was contracted by government to conduct an investigation into irregularities relating to the procurement, in particular the acquisition and distribution of medicine to public health facilities. This report was tabled in Parliament by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg in February, when he presented his Budget Speech for the 2024/25 financial year. This past week, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) finally got the chance to scrutinise the report and speak to Funduzi officials on their findings. What the report contains makes for very disturbing reading.

Investigator

Presenting a summary of the forensic audit report before the PAC, Boyce Mkhize, the lead investigator roped in by Funduzi for this project, disclosed that more than E1 billion had been paid to companies that were supposed to supply drugs – without purchase orders. This is not just shocking but a criminal offence on so many levels. It contravenes both accounting rules and national laws. Investigators were also able to confirm that there was sometimes collusion between civil servants entrusted with the responsibility of managing medical drug supply processes and the suppliers of medicine. This is clearly a crime of corruption, as anticipated by the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006.

At times, according to Mkhize, the unscrupulous suppliers would deliver medicine that had not been ordered. Instead of returning the stock that had been `dumped’ without having been ordered, the government employees would circumvent the procurement process and allow the supplier to issue invoices after the fact. As one can imagine, while the `dumped’ stock was sitting wherever it was kept, having been delivered without being ordered, it got closer and closer to its expiry date. Speaking of which, another shameful activity uncovered by Funduzi was that the shelf-life of any medicine supplied should be 18 months. However, some suppliers were allowed to deliver stock that had a shorter shelf-life. This is detrimental to you and I as end users because the stock would expire before being exhausted, which would result in shortages when it is removed from the shelves.

Paid-for trips

Mkhize also confirmed the allegation of some civil servants being bribed by certain suppliers with hard cash and fully paid-for trips to destinations of their choice. As a journalist who lives by the motto: “It is not what you know but what you can prove,” I was impressed that Mkhize would from time to time state that they were not just pulling rabbits out of a hat like magicians but had evidence of what they were revealing. These included the depositing of monies by suppliers, to the personal bank accounts of some civil servants. The fact that an officer who earns around E25 000 before deductions could afford to pay E700 000 as a deposit for a car worth E1.6 million confirms the reality that the drug procurement system in Eswatini has been run mafia-style.

It is a pity that there are certain elements seeking to establish how Funduzi was engaged in the first place. This may be their prerogative but as I have said before, those who are `hunting the hunters’ had better be acting objectively and not as a result of a mission to silence the investigators. In any case, Funduzi has finally had its day before the PAC. Most of the revelations contained in the report and confirmed by Mkhize, the lead investigator, were not new to some emaSwati. For a few months now, we have all known that there was collusion between some civil servants, especially in the Ministry of Health and some suppliers of medical drugs. Some of those implicated have taken to social media to vindicate themselves, pleading innocence and citing all sorts of reasons for them to be “lied about.”

As all this went on, we heard nothing about people being suspended from work, fired or arrested. There is no better time than now for that to happen. This is because the forensic report is now in the hands of the appropriate authority in the PAC, which is a committee representing not only Parliament as a legislative institution but the entire nation as well.

Blacklisted

Having heard all the shocking details surrounding the procurement of medical drugs in Eswatini, the PAC has already recommended that implicated suppliers should be blacklisted and removed from the list of vendors who supply government. This is commendable but it may have come a bit too late. This is because the criminals who have been having the time of their lives at the expense of patients who need medical care have known for several months that investigators were on to them. They may have already destroyed certain evidence.
That justice delayed is justice denied does not only apply to people who are undergoing prosecution. It also applies to the victims of crime.

If those who did the crime are not properly and timeously dealt with, victims lose faith in the system. This also makes a mockery of any country’s justice system because new culprits emerge and commit similar crimes, knowing that there will be no consequences. The ball is once again in Parliament’s court. After adopting the Funduzi forensic audit report, this institution should ensure and never rest until all the implicated suppliers and government employees have been prosecuted.
That is the only way to end this national crisis once and for all.