ACC hits at Health Ministry and VPs office

News leaking from the country’s Anti Corruption Office reveals that top officials of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, as well as the Minister of State, representing the office of the Vice President were called to a meeting by the Anti-Corruption Commission on 2^nd February 2010 to discuss the way forward in the Health Sector and to remind them about pertinent issues relating to corruption in their offices.  According to an ACC release, “the ACC since last year (2009) did a Systems Review on the Ministry of Health and made a number of recommendations in its report but that, not much has been done by way of implementing the recommendations in the systems review report.

This it is said came to light as a result of a monitoring exercise conducted by a number of top ACC officials including the Deputy Commissioner at the PCM Hospital in Freetown on 20^th January 2010.

Addressing the Ministry officials the Deputy Commissioner recognized the strides the Ministry has undertaken through the Deputy Minister in eliminating Fake Health Centers and Clinics as an example of the sort of commitment the commission is looking forward to.  He further expressed that although the Ministry is doing its bit, the public is still frustrated about health delivery system in Sierra Leonean; that there is seemingly lack of commitment to bringing the necessary changes in the health sector.

He cited example of emergency cases being treated with levity at PCMH in his own presence as a true indication of what the majority of the people of this country are still enduring.  He further expressed his frustration over the seemingly lack of leadership in almost all government hospitals and because of that; reporting time to work is unclear.  He further cited that some officials of the hospitals look frustrated because of treatments from the top.  This to him is a systems failure in most of the hospitals.  There is no proper drug management, no list of drugs in stores, no document on drug movement, no records from stores to the hospitals and that these are recipe for corruption.

In response to the address of the Deputy Commissioner, the Minister of State in Vice President Office overseeing the health ministry expressed concern about the absence of the Deputy Minister of Health. The Minister suggested as a way forward that MOHS strengthen their internal monitoring mechanism so as to stop people moving fake and expired drugs within and across the borders of this country. He also added that the ministry of health under the auspices of the office of the vice president is developing a comprehensive annual work plan that will likely address most of the concerns discussed.  

In his final statement, the Deputy Commissioner recommended that in earnest, the Ministry of Health should provide and publicize costs of respective drugs in the country, makes it clear who takes responsibility and health officials to talk to the Commission when they are faced with problems.  He warned that the Commission will take all necessary measures to frown at the Ministry if they realize that the Ministry has failed to follow the recommendations that have been proffered in the Health Report forwarded to them three to four months ago.  He assured the officials that the monitoring exercise of the Health Report will soon commence and the Commission will robustly work on the findings.

The head of the Systems Processes Review Department Mrs. Neneh Dabo, presented highlights of the findings in the health sector review report. She further stated the relevant provisions of the AC act 2008 that prescribe penalties for non-compliance to ACC recommendations. She read out portions in section 8, subsections (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5). She particularly stressed Subsection (2), which states that, “where a public body considers that the changes in practices and procedures as contained in the instructions would be impracticable or otherwise disadvantageous to the effective discharge of its duties, the public body shall make representations to the Commissioner in writing, within seven days of receipt of the instructions”. In connection to the above clause, Mrs. Dabo said no body in the health sector has reported any of the recommendations being impracticable and therefore the Commission assumes that all the recommendations proffered are workable. She informed the officers that, the monitoring of the implementation of the report will commence soon and the monitoring report will be circulated to the MOHS and stakeholders. Based on the report, ACC’s management will take the necessary action as provided for in the Anti-Corruption Act 2008.

The commission informed the officials that the monitoring will not only target the MOHS but other institutions that have stake in the report like the HRMO, the Local Council and the Ministry of Finance, as one layer. For the second layer, questionnaires will be developed for professionals and administrators in the hospitals. For the third layer, services offered will then be evaluated by administering a separate questionnaire to the service users (public); these will be done almost concurrently.

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