Maravi

HH blames donor funding pull-out on MMD’s failure

HH blames donor funding pull-out on MMD’s failure
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Friday, July 17, 2009 5:12:06 AM

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has said the withdrawal of funding by donors to the Ministry of Health is an example of the many failures of the MMD government.

Commenting on the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI)'s suspension of funding to the Ministry of Health following recent revelations of corruption, Hichilema said the suspension of funding was an indication arising from the poor governance where funds ended up in the pockets of a few individuals.

He said this was one of the threats that the country was faced with.

"These are the threats, poor health delivery because of corruption which has become rampant. There was an insinuation that people are taking advantage of problems the people are facing for the personal benefits, this is not correct. We are providing checks and balances and as long as the situation does not improve, we will not stop taking," he said.

He said there were issues of retrenchees and lecturers at the University of Zambia (UNZA) that needed to be dealt with.

"So if services are not delivered we will continue talking, no one will stop us or threaten us. And there is no plot, I don't see no plot maybe there is an imaginary plot," he said.

Hichilema said President Rupiah Banda was trying to divert the attention and the pressure on his government's failures to deliver to the people of Zambia

"So he will like to create an imaginary threat, this country is a peaceful country except people are agitating for better service delivery and that you can't define as a threat. I mean let's assume there was a threat. A threat against what? I mean the nurses have been on strike, their matters have not yet been fully resolved, they have gone back to work which is very good and, the lecturers at the University of Zambia have had a go-slow, nobody is attending to that. So if there is any threat it's the failure of the leadership of the MMD, that is the threat this country is facing," he said. "And let's assume there was another threat, taking Mangani to home affairs. Who is he going to threaten? What capacity or mechanism would Mangani use other than the dictatorial tendencies we are seeing from President Banda and his team and the confusion. You have seen the arguments, [former defence minister George] Mpombo, [works and supply minister Mike] Mulongoti, [MMD spokesperson Benny] Tetamashimba, it's a chaotic situation. I see a threat on the stability of the country arising from the failure of leadership of the MMD government."

And some services in some clinics in Lusaka have been affected following the withdrawal of funding to the Ministry of Health.

Highly-placed sources at three named clinics said since there were no funds to pay nurses and midwives for part time duty, many were shunning the work.

The sources said the nurses and midwives had not been paid their part time money since March.

"You see there is a shortage of staff in clinics. So what they do is that there is part time duty where nurses and midwives come to work when they are off duty and they are paid 40,000 and 45,000 for midwives and nurses respectively per shift. And you do like five shifts in a week. Now we are being told that there is a delay in payments because of delays in receiving the grants from the source," the source said.

The sources said clinics get about K2 million for part time duties which was supposed to be shared among the staff but this had not come in four months.

"The supply of gloves and Jik is also erratic so what we are doing now is telling mothers to bring their own," the source said.

Apart from GAVI Alliance's decision, Sweden, through Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the Netherlands recently suspended aid to the Ministry of Health following revelations of corruption. The two countries said the abuse of taxpayers' money was unacceptable and that they would withhold funds until the Auditor General concludes the forensic audit on Ministry of Health.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, MMD

posted by MrK @ 4:11 AM