SENIOR CIVIL SERVANT, 3 OTHERS ACCUSED OF E9M PPE THEFT

MANZINI – The lives of medical personnel were deliberately put at risk by a senior civil servant and his cohorts as they allegedly stole PPE worth about E9 million donated to government and sold it.

PPE is an acronym personal protective equipment and is worn to minimise exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses and for medical care workers, it includes:  gloves, medical/surgical face masks, goggles, face shields, and gowns. It also includes items for specific procedures, such as filtering face piece respirators (i.e. N95 or FFP2 or FFP3 standard or equivalent).

The senior civil servant, who is suspected to be leading a number of medical personnel, disregarded the challenges faced by frontline healthcare workers in the country’s health facilities, who at some instance had been forced to use a disposable surgical mask for a whole week despite that it is to be disposed of every four hours.

Donations 

After medical practitioners asked earnestly for the provision of PPE following a span of industrial action across the health sector, the country received donations from a number of benefactors, which were to benefit the healthcare frontliners against contracting COVID-19.

However, that was not to be, as the senior medical officer allegedly stole and sold the PPE with the help of an employee of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and two orderlies. Unconfirmed reports reflected that the stolen PPE was in excess of E9 million.

It was claimed that the PPE was stolen after it was donated by one of the country’s collaborators. According to impeccable sources, the senior medical officer allegedly pinched the PPE through the help of the trio, who were said to have collected the PPE from the Central Medical Stores (CMS) where it had been stored.

CMS is responsible for the supply chain management of all health commodities including medicines in the public sector. 

The main objective of CMS is to ensure a regular and uninterrupted equitable supply of quality medicines and medical supplies to the health facilities thus ensuring that the general population can access these commodities.

It was claimed that the PPE was donated to government and registered with the CMS. Thereafter, this publication gathered that the PPE was dispatched to the Mbabane Government Hospital where it was to be used by medical practitioners.

However, this did not happen as it was gathered that the PPE never reached its destination. An impeccable source said the ‘merchandise’ was sold to a businessman, who through a tendering process, was able to supply it to a parastatal.

The name of the businessman and his company have been deliberately withheld as comment could not be sought from them.

The parastatal is Eswatini Railways (ER) and it legitimately procured the PPE and donated it to government, oblivious of the fact that the items may have been stolen. Conversely, as the donation was made to government, employees at the CMS noted an anomaly.

System 

The anomaly was that the consignment that they were receiving had been captured in their system and was meant for the Mbabane Government Hospital.

The boxes were said to have disappeared weeks before the donation by ER. An impeccable source said: “When the donation was made, it was noted that some of the boxes had the same stickers like the previous donated PPE.”

The impeccable source said this resulted in the ministry launching a full-scale investigation to ascertain how the ER could have laid its hands on the same PPE batch as the one donated to government.

The investigation was confirmed by the Director of Health Services, Dr Vusi Magagula. At first, the director expressed shock on how the news of this misdeed had been leaked to the media.

“Where did you get this? Has it been deliberated on at a particular forum?” he asked.

Dr Magagula said the ministry was investigating the matter and accountability was necessary. He was hopeful that justice would take its course.

“Oh yes, we are investigating this matter. This a criminal offence and we are dealing with it internally for now but it shall be public as I suspect the verdict would be determined by the courts,” he said.

On the other hand, this is not the first time medical supplies have been stolen from the Ministry of Health. In 2016, this publication reported that expired drugs, worth about E10 million, were stolen from CMS. This was according to the Auditor General’s Report for year ended March 2015. It was said the drugs were stolen and probably sold, which was hazardous to people’s health. 

Unexplained 

The then AG, Phestecia Nxumalo, stated that there was an unexplained decrease in the obsolete stock worth E4 637 609.48 and a value of E5 777 857.67 of obsolete stock which was verified but not taken into account in the financial year ended March 31, 2015.

She said according to the Drugs Trading Account, for the past financial year 2013/2014, the value of obsolete stock was E16 223 171.73, and this amount represented expired stock, which had been cumulative and not destroyed in previous years.

“The Drugs Trading Account for the financial year under review, ended March 31, 2015, reflected an amount of E11 549 562.25, as deficit, which represented the value of obsolete stock,” the report stated.

She said the variance between the two amounts indicated a decreased value of E4 637 609.48 and there was no evidence produced to justify the decrease in the obsolete stock.

The AG said a physical inspection, which was conducted at the CMS on December 16, 2015, revealed that the actual value of obsolete stock for the financial year ended March 31, 2015 was E5 771 704.58.

Also, in 2015, the value of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in monetary terms was highlighted when two government employees were arrested for the theft of the drugs, worth E40 000. 

This theft highlighted the value of this pharmaceutical commodity, and how precious it was for people living with HIV and AIDS as for them, it was a matter of life and death.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: