Police pick up Dr Miti to help in MoH probe

Police pick up Dr Miti to help in MoH probe
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe, Ernest Chanda and Mwila Chansa
Sunday, May 31, 2009 4:05:53 PM

FORMER health permanent secretary Dr Simon Miti was yesterday picked up by the police to help in the investigations of the K10 billion corruption scam in the Ministry of Health. And about 23 officials from the Ministry of Health are currently in custody following the institution of investigations in the theft of the K10 billion from the ministry.

Police spokesperson Bonny Kapeso yesterday confirmed that Dr Miti, who is now science and technology permanent secretary, was interviewed. However, Kapeso said Dr Miti was not in custody.

Kapeso said several more officials from the ministry were picked up in connection with the scam last Friday and as of yesterday there were 23 employees in custody.

And well-placed government sources disclosed that according to preliminary investigations by the Office of the Auditor General, a local company Kansma investments was dubiously paid K609,101,000 involving two transactions for some supplies to the Ministry of Health.

The sources said ESU School of Nursing was also paid over K7 billion involving 10 transactions for purposes of training nurses, midwives, clinical officers and for seminars between January 2008 and December 2008.

According to the sources, Joshua Ushibantu Simpaya, one of the directors of the same nursing school, is also an employee of the Ministry of Health.

The sources said another company Hesaka Enterprises where Henry Kapoko - a former human resource manager in the Ministry of Health - is one of the shareholders and directors, was paid about K204 million in April 2008.

The sources revealed that Best Home Lodge was paid over K442 million between May and December, last year for undisclosed services.

"Algonquin Management Consultants which deals in consultancy business was paid over K7 billion involving 13 transactions last year. Nora Christine Musopelo Mataka, a former Ministry of Health employee in the human resource department, is one of the directors and shareholders," the source said.

The sources disclosed that Kahekam Limited which deals in general trading and where Kapoko is shareholder and director was paid a down payment of over K1.9 billion from a total of K2.2 billion involving one transaction in February this year.

According to the sources, this contract should have been awarded to another firm which had qualified for the contract.

"The following are the qualifications; financial capability to handle a contract of such magnitude, to avail audited financial statements for the past three years of the company's operation, its average turnover for the past three years, be three years times the contract sum, meaning that the average turnover should have been K6.6 billion. However, Kahekam Limited did not qualify on any of the above criteria despite being awarded the contract," the source said "The total value of the contract sum of K2.2 billion was bonded by Goldman Insurance Limited up to March 31, 2009 and has since expired. The Ministry of Health did not take any step to claim back the above amount from Goldman Insurance Limited before the bond expired as Kahekam Limited did not supply any of the contracted 50,000 mother baby kits,"

The sources said Royal College of Business and Management [formerly Royal Secretarial and Management College] was paid over K4.3 billion involving six transactions between February and December, 2008.

The sources said the college is involved in secretarial training, research and human resource development.

And according to reliable sources at the MMD secretariate, the image builders for President Rupiah Banda in last year's campaign were lodged at Best Home Lodge as well as part of the MMD campaign team.

The sources said some of the upkeep for the MMD campaign team was paid by the Ministry of Health.

The sources said most of the people close to President Banda were also booked there and some speeches were written from there.

"We are very disappointed because there is an attempt from the powers that be to shield some MMD and government officials involved. There is a serious attempt to frustrate investigations in order to save some people who were involved in MMD campaigns. The involvement of police is also meant to frustrate investigations. It is also believed that the sealing off of the Ministry of Health by the police last week was meant to destroy some documents which could have implicated some MMD and top government officials as well as the image builders," the source said.

The sources said the powers that be brought in the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and Zambia Police to hurry Kapoko's arrest so that the case could be hurried to court, and if it failed to stand in court, Kapoko would then be acquitted.

The sources said the ACC started investigating Kapoko's issue in February and were moving systematically because a lot of people were involved.

The sources said some companies connected to Kapoko were also connected to powerful people in the government and their children.

The sources disclosed that State House was using police to save those on their side while those on the other side were being used as sacrificial lambs.

"This is why we are complaining that some people should not be sacrificed over others and we are really doubtful that President Banda will properly fight this corruption because he is a beneficiary," the source said.

Auditor General Anna Chifungula last Friday revealed that preliminary investigations at the Ministry of Health indicated that K27 billion was stolen and there was a possibility that more money might have been stolen by civil servants.

Chifungula said the amounts of money stolen from the ministry were much higher than the initially reported K10 billion.

Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Joshua Kanganja said 32 workers from the Ministry of Health had been sent on forced leave.

Dr Kanganja said the affected workers would be liable for prosecution if investigations proved that they had abused public funds.

The ACC unearthed a corruption scam in which over K10 billion government funds were suspected to have been corruptly obtained from the Ministry of Health.

The commission is investigating Kapoko in connection with the alleged corruption, theft and fraud.

The ACC has also seized and restricted property in excess of K3 billion allegedly belonging to Kapoko who now works at the Ministry of Local Government and Housing in the human resource department.

President Banda last Tuesday directed all civil servants and their agents who were currently under investigations in the K10 billion scam not to enter the Ministry of Health premises until further notice.

According to a statement issued by special assistant to the President for press and public relations Dickson Jere, President Banda received an interim report on the alleged financial scam at the Ministry of Health where billions of funds were alleged to have been misapplied or stolen by civil servants.

Last Wednesday, over 20 employees at Ministry of Health were suspended to pave way for investigations into the scam.

Operations at the ministry were temporarily suspended as law enforcement agents cordoned the area to ensure that people did not move evidence from the offices and some people from various departments were picked up for questioning at the police headquarters.

Following the revelations, the Swedish and Dutch governments suspended aid to Zambia's health sector.

The donors have withheld their aid pending the report of the forensic audit of the Ministry of Health.

The Swedish government, through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), were to release about K59 billion while the Dutch government contributes K92 billion annually to the country's health sector

Meanwhile, agriculture minister Dr Brian Chituwo said he feels terrible about the K10 billion scam in the Ministry of Health.

In an interview in Kitwe, Dr Chituwo noted that the K10 billion scam expose was an indication of failure in the government systems especially in procurement.

"I felt terrible and I still feel terrible," said Dr Chituwo who is former health minister. "I don't want to blow my own trumpet but I lobbied for resources from donors to support our programmes in the Ministry of Health."

Dr Chituwo said he personally travelled with the late president Levy Mwanawasa to lobby for activities such as the roll-back malaria programme and that at one time when they [he and the late Mwanawasa] went to the United States, donors even gave them an opportunity to propound what Zambia would do if given resources for the malaria programme.

"And believe you me, resources were coming. Now to learn about this is shocking; this clearly shows a system failure, not to have detected what was going on. Our systems are perhaps not that strong," he said.

However, Dr Chituwo noted that the expose could also be an indication that not all systems were failing because if it were so, the scam would not have been detected.

Dr Chituwo observed that the suspension of funding by some donor countries to the health ministry would seriously impede Zambia's progress in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He said Zambia was already struggling to be on track in attaining health MDGs even before some donors suspended their funding and that their suspension would aggravate the situation.

"This is very unfortunate and that is why thorough work in investigations should be done. I would once again like to appeal to donors to rescind their decision," said Dr Chituwo.