Ministry of Health…

By Alusine Fullah

As a way to minimize if not to stop mismanagement of public funds in Ministries Departments and Agencies in the country, the Auditor General whose mandate is to check and cross-check the activities of different institutions has issued its 2022 Audit report and it has brought to light the dubious activities of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.

In line with that, according to the 2022 Audit Report a contract was signed between the Makeni City Council and the contractor to rehabilitate the Red Cross PHU at Mabanta Road in Makeni. The Audit Report reads:

“During the review of payment records, we observed that a total of SLE47,000 was paid to Barham Enterprise on 18th August 2022, the same day the contract was signed between the Makeni City Council and the contractor to rehabilitate the Red Cross PHU at Mabanta Road in Makeni. Further verification of the said activity revealed that it was not undertaken…”However, responding to the above allegation, the District Health Management Team, Bombali officially responded that Makeni City Council is responsible for the rehabilitation of Red Cross PHU since it’s procurement-related and the activity is within their purview. It should be noted that the Red Cross CHP has a catchment population of 30,212 and women of child bearing age of 6,707 with a very dysfunctional labour ward as a result of leaking roofs during the rains. There was an urgent need to address this challenge towards health service delivery. However, according to MCC during the auditing exercise, rehabilitation was ongoing during that period. We would like the ASSL to conduct the final verification of the entire exercise based on the prescribed BOQ via MCC.

We recommended that the DMO should ensure that the rehabilitation work at the Red Cross health facility is done. Otherwise, the amount should be refunded to the Makeni City Council account, and evidence of payment forwarded to the ASSL.