As a way of preventing incidences of corruption in public institutions, the Public Education and Outreach Department of the Anti-Corruption North-West Regional Office has on Wednesday 4th November 2020 held a sensitization meeting with the District Health Management Team (DHMT) in Port Loko.
Addressing staff of the team, the Regional Manager Al-Hassan Sesay recognized and acknowledged the importance of the DHMT in providing and managing the delivery of primary health care in the district and in ensuring a healthy workforce. He stated that over the past two years significant strides have been made in the fight against corruption and the commission is now poised with renewed energy and zest through the astute leadership of the ACC’s Czar Francis Ben Kaifala to take the fight to every nook and cranny of the country.
Mr. Sesay emphasized the importance of the public education and prevention approaches in changing the mindset and perception of the citizenry in mitigating and winning the fight against graft and bribery. Manager Sesay went on to note that working in the DHMT either on voluntary and on casual basis qualify all the staff as public officers, and by extension making them persons covered by the ACC laws. He therefore cautioned them to be cognizant of the law and the presence of the ACC in the region. “The fact that the ACC is now closer to you, you must desist from doing the wrong things as usual,” he emphasized.
Explaining the outcome of the 2019 national corruption perception survey, the Regional Boss informed them that the health sector occupied the second position as the most corrupt sector which is indicative of the interaction with the public in delivering health services. The DHMT, he said, is the bedrock in terms of delivering health care services and public officers in the sector must ensure that their actions are in line with the law and best practices.
He succinctly explained related key corruption offences including, but not limited to offering, soliciting and accepting advantage, abuse of office and position, misappropriation of public funds and property, misappropriation of donor fund and property, possession of unexplained wealth, corrupt acquisition of wealth, bid rigging, influencing a public officer etc. He also pinpointed the ACC’s concern about key corruption issues like double dipping, absenteeism, time theft and various extortion practices prevalent in Peripheral Health Units (PHUs) across the district.
Public Education Officer Mohamed Thullah, who spoke on the role of team in the fight against corruption said senior management must device strong internal controls and robust monitoring mechanisms and enhance best practices in their daily operations. In the recent past, he cited the ugly circumstance in PCMH and Rokupa Hospitals relating to negligence and misconduct of health workers that led to death of patients, adding that those situations are not peculiar to the aforementioned facilities, but also prevalent across health care centres in the district. He accentuated the significance of ethics and the maintenance of a positive attitude to work in discharging their functions and warned all to conform to the dictates of the law or face the wrath of the ACC. He also encouraged senior management to internalize the fight by making the Integrity Management Committees functional and operational and to also take the lead in supervising the activities of PHUs in the district.
Welcoming the ACC Team, the District Medical Officer, Dr Mamoud Idriss Kamara, lauded the initiative to engage and educate their staff on corruption issues and to also guide their conduct in the process of delivering health care services. As head of the team, he promised to be supportive of the fight against corruption and to ensure that anti-corruption messages are cascaded to every staff of the district. District Health Sister, Fatmata Bayoh, also expressed similar sentiment of support to the ACC and called for the Commission to increase public education engagement with the sector and to intensify effective collaboration between the two institutions.
Chief of Staff of DICOVERC-Port Loko, Dr Songor Koedoyoma, described the ACC as a key partner in development and also appreciated the move by ACC to engage them and to also keep them on their toes. He pointed out that when public officers lose sight of accounting for their stewardship, then they are not fit to serve whilst emphasizing the importance of maintaining accountability measures in every public institution in the country.
Delivering the welcome address, Maternal Child Health Aide (MCH Aide), Coordinator Rose Gitta Deen, thanked the ACC team for sensitizing them on various issues of corruption and promised on behalf of the team to adhere to the ACC laws and best practices. Presentation of IEC materials and question and answer session formed part of the engagement.
11/11/2020. ISSUE NO: 7949