Mpilo Senior employee allegedly pockets $200 000

MPILO Central Hospital has suspended a senior member of staff (name withheld) for allegedly altering the amount on an invoice thereby prejudicing the hospital of $200 000.

The scandal is threatening to suck in more senior officials in the chain of supervision who were reportedly in a position to stop the money from being paid out amid suspicions that a well-oiled syndicate is siphoning funds from the hospital's coffers.

The senior employee was reportedly suspended on Wednesday last week after an audit team from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare unearthed the fraud.

Another senior employee from the hospital's central buying unit is reportedly scheduled to appear before the hospital's board this week regarding the same issue.

Officials at the hospital which is one of the largest referral hospitals in the country, said at one point there were attempts to stop the investigation by the auditors, through bribing one of them to destroy the evidence that reportedly implicated the senior employee.

In August, the hospital's clinical director, Dr Wedu Ndebele, told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Welfare that the institution was saddled with a debt of more than $1,5 million.

He said the debt was forcing some suppliers to ignore drug tenders, leaving depleted stocks of about 48 percent of essential drugs.

He appealed then for financial assistance from the Government to help put the hospital back on its feet.

Sources at the hospital said the implicated senior member of staff was part of a team that was mandated to replace obsolete machinery at the hospital early this year.

"The team recommended that the extractor, a big stove that is used to cook hospital meals needed to be replaced. They brought a quotation of $48 500. The price was approved by the hospital's Procurement and Tender Committee (PTC)," said an official.

The implicated senior member of staff allegedly later added a figure two to make the quotation read $248 500.

"Somehow, the money was paid out. I think this exposes the level of corruption at Mpilo. There are several stages at which this discrepancy should have been detected but amazingly it was not.  A ministerial approval is required for any expenditure exceeding $50 000 on a single item so why did the authorities not query such a big amount?" said the official.

The official said the supplier (name withheld) was suspected to be part of the scam because the amount was paid out to him and the implicated senior member of staff is suspected to have got his share from the supplier.

"When the audit team came here, it is alleged that one of the members of the team was bribed and a copy of the altered invoice disappeared from the files. For a while, it looked like the auditors' probe would be stopped but fortunately for the hospital, there were back up copies that were kept by the records department. These were availed and the audit was completed," the official said.

Other officials at the hospital called for a full-scale investigation into alleged corruption at the hospital.

"We are dedicated professionals and we are pained to see patients dying everyday because of inadequate equipment or drugs. It is shocking that someone can steal this much, an amount that can make a big difference for our patients. This sickening matter could be a tip of the iceberg as we suspect a lot is happening in the different departments," fumed a doctor.

Another doctor said it was possible that more could have been stolen.

"I think supervision is lax. If one person can steal this much, we have every reason to suspect huge amounts are being siphoned out everyday. I think this is a cartel that is enriching itself at the expense of patients," said the doctor.

Dr Ndebele declined to comment.

"You cannot write about this issue. I cannot comment on it at the moment because it is still under investigations," said Dr Ndebele.

Efforts to get a comment from the implicated senior member of staff were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.

In the first quarter of the year, a Government audit team reportedly recommended tightening of supervision on Mpilo Central Hospital's finances.

Workers at the hospital alleged that buyers were awarding supply tenders to friends who sometimes supplied sub-standard products and charging up to tenfold the recommended prices.