(TIMES) Incomplete projects scam unearthed
Incomplete projects scam unearthedBy Times Reporter
GOVERNMENT has unearthed a scam in the North-Western Province where some incomplete projects, have been recorded as completed. Provincial Permanent Secretary, Richard Salivaji, revealed the rip-off in Solwezi to visiting ministry of Health planning officials and Zambia Federation Health Institutions medical specialists.
Mr Salivaji said his office had reports of some projects, which had been recorded as having been finished when in fact not, and the Government was closing in on culpable contractors.
He appealed to planners to involve the Government and donors in their planning as some clinics, which might have been entered in the inventory of the ministry of Health, were non-existent.
Mr Salivaji cited Kabompo where certificates of approval showed that solar power had been installed and boreholes sunk when that was not the case.
He said he was in the process of compiling a full report on projects, especially those that were carried out under Zambia Social Investment Fund (ZAMSIF).
“As we are planning, can we plan together with partners like Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ). North-Western Province has taken on a new dimension, we need to raise the ceiling, for example, we cannot plan Solwezi the way we did four years ago,” he said.
Mr Salivaji said with daily arrivals of new people in Solwezi because of the mining activities, infrastructure at Solwezi General Hospital was being over-stretched.
He said when the Government appealed to Kansanshi Mine for help as a social responsibility by having own health facility, the mine requested for a ward at the general hospital to be turned into a fee-paying.
“We said to them ‘sorry’, and instead we opted to give them land on which to build their own hospital. I have been in Solwezi for one and half years now, and this has not happened,” Mr Salivaji said.
He urged planners to do something about the facilities at the hospital, which had proved to be inadequate, and sometimes patients had to be referred to Chingola on the Copperbelt.
The planning team include advisor to the permanent secretary, Vincent Musowe, planner, Steve Mtonga, assistant director planning, Henry Kansembe, Patricia Kamanga, of World Health Organisation and Rosemary Kabwe, from CHAZ.
Dr Charles Masase, a Ndola-based consultant physician, said members of the Zambia Federation of Health Institutions were in the province to conduct operations on patients on the short-list.
Dr Masase, who is among a team of specialists that arrived in Solwezi on Monday, said the setback in their operations included the state of the theatre at Solwezi General Hospital.
And saying the federation believed that health was for all, coordinator, Oscar Mubanga, said the federation, formed in 1993, was a consortium of health institutions, which meet to discuss issues affecting them.
Labels: BOONDOGGLES, CORRUPTION
posted by MrK @ 6:18 AM
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