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WE commend the government for moving swiftly to clean up the rot at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo where it has suspended three top officials implicated in a tender scandal which cost the institution millions of dollars. We urge the Ministry of Health and Child Care to widen its investigations to include other central and district hospitals throughout the country as this tender scam might just be a tip of the iceberg.

Forensic audits should be done at these institutions so that the government – which is terribly under-resourced – is not prejudiced further. The chairperson of the Mpilo board, Sichelesile Moyo-Ncube on Friday announced that the chief executive officer Lawrence Mantiziba, operations director Duduza Regina Moyo and chairperson of the central buying unit Mxolisi Sibanda had been suspended without pay for three months.

A fourth official who was not named but is suspected to be finance director Charles Govo, could not be suspended as he was not available to be served with his suspension letter. Moyo-Ncube said an extensive audit is set to be carried out at one of the largest referral hospitals in the country during the period and we are sure more irregularities will be unearthed given the rampant corruption at the institution.

The Health Services Board (HSB) is set to decide the fate of the officials after the audit with the prosecution of the culprits a likely scenario given the fraud allegations raised in the report. The Procurement and Tender Committee and the Central Buying Unit was also disbanded and we feel this was the right thing to do given that the two units were at the beck and call of the operations director and did her bidding. The committee was described as clueless in an audit report and is said to have stood by while officials plundered hospital resources.

Mantiziba is being charged with failing to put up structures to prevent fraud at the institution and as the head of the hospital, he failed dismally to stem the orgy of plunder that was happening on his watch. Operations director Duduza Regina Moyo allegedly influenced tender procedures to prejudice the hospital of millions of dollars while Sibanda allegedly assisted her.

Allegations against finance director Charles Govo are that he ignored State Procurement Board requirements and paid suppliers who did not have Tax Clearances and company registration. The board chairperson applauded health Minister David Parirenyatwa and the Health Services Board for reacting swiftly to a damning audit report and endorsing the board’s decision to suspend officials fingered in the scam.

“Transparency and accountability are very important when we look at such issues, especially when we are looking at a hospital of this size, which services our region. When action of this nature is taken, I’m sure everyone is assured the matter is being attended to,” said Moyo-Ncube.

The Chronicle lifted the lid on the alleged corruption in February, when a $3 million tender, which had been awarded to Bulawayo businessman Ashton Mpofu’s New Planet Company, was cancelled after Mpofu allegedly refused to bribe Mantiziba and Moyo. Moyo alleged Mpofu threatened to harm her following the cancellation and requested a bodyguard. The tender- according to the audit report – had been illegally and unnecessarily split into smaller tenders.

The auditors said if the contract had been given to one company, it would have cost approximately $1,049 million. After being split up, it ended up costing more than $2 million. “This could have been avoided had the operations director and her team performed due diligence checks on suppliers to ensure they have the necessary capacity to supply goods and services,” read the report. “There are indications that the operations director is colluding with suppliers as some information on tenders seems to be availed to certain suppliers only.”

Mpofu was awarded the tender to refurbish the hospital’s radiotherapy centre towards the end of 2012.The scope of the tender ranged from providing new equipment, to re-tiling the floors and painting the walls. The cancer unit was closed for the duration of the project, forcing cancer patients in the southern region to travel to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare for treatment.

The tender scam at Mpilo should jerk the government into action so that it revisits its tender system particularly for the supply of critical equipment to all its hospitals.

There is another scam at Mnene Hospital in Mberengwa where officials are alleged to have colluded with suppliers to fleece the institution.

This shows that this practice is rampant and Government might be losing millions of dollars to dubious suppliers working in cahoots with corrupt hospital officials.