KIGALI, 11 August. - (ANA) - The Rwandan government has fired two ministry of Health directors and disbanded a unit at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) for mismanagement.

 

The dismissal of the 24 public officials was approved at a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame on Wednesday.

 

The unprecedented move comes after persistent adverse reports by the Auditor-General showing some public institutions among them the Health ministry and the RBC, which falls under the ministry, have serious financial flaws.

 

The officers are likely to face prosecution for inefficiencies and mismanagement of public resources, a source at the Health ministry told The EastAfrican.

 

“The Cabinet meeting removed from duties all the staff from Medical Technology and Infrastructure Division [at RBC] due to inefficiencies affecting the performance of the health sector,” reads the statement on Cabinet Decisions.

 

The unit is in charge of resourcing government health facilities with medical equipment and infrastructure.

 

Hamad Baligira who was the director of Human Resource and Administration Unit at the Ministry of Health was dismissed for malpractice in recruitment of staff for health facilities across country. Ministry officials allege nepotism and corruption was rampant in the staffing processes.

 

Théogène Namahungu, the Director of Health Technology and Infrastructure Planning Unit at the RBC, was fired along with seven other senior officials who include engineers in construction, and biomedical equipment, and procurement officers.

 

The EastAfrican has learnt that the eight are facing charges for flouting procurement guidelines including forgery of documents, issuing illegal public tenders and embezzlement.

 

“The ministry had already fired some of them over professional malpractices. We don’t have much to comment after the decision by the Cabinet except to tell you that it’s appropriate,” said Fulgence Kamali, a communications official at RBC.

 

According to the Auditor-General reports, RBC is cited as having procured medical equipment such as incubators, CT scan, fetal monitors, and laboratory equipment that is not being utilised by hospitals. The audit argues that this is as a result of a mismatch between the needs of the health facilities and the equipment procurement.-(ANA) -

 

 

AB/ANA/ 11 August 2018 - - -