DRUGS CORRUPTION: CIVIL SERVANT EARNING E25 000 BUYS E1.5M CAR

LOBAMBA – The civil servants implicated in the corruption that involves medical drugs and supplies are living beyond their means.
One of the officers is said to have bought a car worth E1.5 million, while earning around E25 000 and paid off half of the deposit in cash. This is contained in the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) recommendations on the Funduzi Forensic Audit Report into the acquisition and distribution of medicines to public health facilities in Eswatini. The report was tabled by PAC Chairperson Madala Mhlanga yesterday in Parliament. This report is yet to be debated and adopted by the House of Assembly. The Funduzi Forensic Services Proprietary Limited was engaged through the Tender Board to perform forensic audit procedures into the entire cycle of ordering, purchasing, payment, delivery and supply of medicines and drugs to public health facilities.

Investigation

The scope of the investigation included, among other responsibilities: A review of the procurement processes, determining whether the money spent by government corresponds with the delivered drugs, ascertain what happened to the drugs paid for by government and determine whether there could have been any fraud, corruption or conflict of interest in the value chain.
This was against the backdrop of government spending around E10 billion over the past five years in the health sector, but emaSwati were still dying in numbers due to a lack of medicines and equipment in public health facilities. The situation has been deteriorating over the years, leading to the current state of affairs, where patients mostly go to public health facilities for a diagnosis and prescription, as they are most likely not going to get medical drugs. The forensic auditors from Funduzi made six key findings during the audit.

These included poor supply chain management processes, poor governance over drugs and medicines administration, poor internal controls and weak payment systems, inadequate systems, wastage, expired drugs and improper ordering, as well as fraud, corruption and conflict of interest. The PAC’s report under fraud, corruption and conflict of interests, the auditors uncovered that some suppliers colluded with public officials to defraud government. Some officials are said to have received cash payments and other forms of gratification from the suppliers. “There is electronic evidence of holidays abroad paid for by suppliers, air tickets, hotel stays, funds transferred into their accounts,” reads the report.
Other findings include duplicated purchase orders to facilitate payment.

Further officials are said to have been caught red-handed changing labels on boxes of drugs and tampering with bar codes of supplies. Some officials are said to have accepted drugs which had expired or were about to expire and induced government to pay for those drugs, there was evidence of some officials giving tips to suppliers and inside information on the information to submit to the Tender Board in order to get particular tenders for the supply of drugs. The Ministry of Health’s Controlling Officer, Khanya Mabuza, is on record telling the PAC that some of these cases have been reported to the Police and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for further investigations.

The controlling officer also stated that 11 officers were taken for disciplinary hearings at the Civil Service Commission (CSC). They were also suspended from work. However, two of these officers challenged the hearings in court, where their case is still pending in the Industrial Court. In the report, the PAC noted that some of the 11 officials that were listed to be involved in the corruption in the Ministry of Health were living a lavish lifestyle that does not fit the salary of a civil servant. “There is also evidence that some of the officers implicated in corruption in the ministry are living beyond their means. For instance, a civil servant earning around E25 000 somehow managed to purchase a car worth E1 500 000 and paid E700 000 as a cash deposit for the car,” reads the PAC recommendation report.

Freezing

The committee recommended that the controlling officer should engage the police with a view to implementing the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) for the freezing of such assets, until the officer proves how she attained the assets. “He should start this process immediately after the report is adopted and quarterly update the committee on progress,” recommended the PAC. The Ministry of Health’s controlling officer was also urged to follow up with the CSC on the disciplinary measures and quarterly update the committee and auditor general on progress, together with the court case. Mabuza is also expected to pursue recoveries against the companies through legal processes/civil claims who unduly benefitted from government through unscrupulous conduct.  

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