Graft major blemish on Africa’s response to pandemic
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African countries have generally handled their coronavirus response better than many experts feared, except for one detail: managing corruption.
Kenya is the latest African nation to have its politics shaken by allegations of corruption in handing out pandemic-response contracts. It follows SA, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Uganda, which have all been rocked by scandals of their own.
Preliminary investigations show officials who have illicitly benefited largely adopted similar methods: awarding contracts to companies owned by relatives or friends to supply medical equipment and services to the state at inflated prices in exchange for kickbacks. The relaxation of tender and procurement rules as governments rushed to prepare health systems for an anticipated influx of patients made it easier for funds to be misappropriated.
“Our politicians are always looking for a chance to eat and it appears the pandemic provided a good opportunity to eat,” said Griffins Omwenga, a resident of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, who works in marketing. “It is shameful to say the least.”
With probes ongoing in several countries, the extent of the plunder is still unknown, but is set to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, articulated the public outrage that the profiteering has elicited in an online briefing last month.
“If health workers work without personal-protective equipment, we’re risking their lives and that also risks the lives of the people they serve,” said Tedros, a former Ethiopian health minister. “It’s criminal and it’s murder and it has to stop.”
Africa has had more than 1.2-million confirmed coronavirus cases so far, while more than 30,000 of those diagnosed with the disease have died, data from Johns Hopkins University show. Inadequate testing capacity on the world’s poorest continent means the actual tallies are likely far higher.
In SA, the authorities are investigating suspect contracts worth about R5.05bn with some awarded to companies established shortly after the outbreak of the disease and owned by high-profile politicians’ relatives. President Cyril Ramaphosa has likened those who had illicitly profited to hyenas and vowed to hold them account, but no-one has been convicted so far.
Virus-related contracts
In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta this week followed Ramaphosa’s lead in ordering details of all virus-related contracts to be published online after irregularities were uncovered at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.
In Zimbabwe, Obadiah Moyo was sacked as health minister in July after being charged in ...
Kenya is the latest African nation to have its politics shaken by allegations of corruption in handing out pandemic-response contracts. It follows SA, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Uganda, which have all been rocked by scandals of their own.
Preliminary investigations show officials who have illicitly benefited largely adopted similar methods: awarding contracts to companies owned by relatives or friends to supply medical equipment and services to the state at inflated prices in exchange for kickbacks. The relaxation of tender and procurement rules as governments rushed to prepare health systems for an anticipated influx of patients made it easier for funds to be misappropriated.
“Our politicians are always looking for a chance to eat and it appears the pandemic provided a good opportunity to eat,” said Griffins Omwenga, a resident of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, who works in marketing. “It is shameful to say the least.”
With probes ongoing in several countries, the extent of the plunder is still unknown, but is set to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, articulated the public outrage that the profiteering has elicited in an online briefing last month.
“If health workers work without personal-protective equipment, we’re risking their lives and that also risks the lives of the people they serve,” said Tedros, a former Ethiopian health minister. “It’s criminal and it’s murder and it has to stop.”
Africa has had more than 1.2-million confirmed coronavirus cases so far, while more than 30,000 of those diagnosed with the disease have died, data from Johns Hopkins University show. Inadequate testing capacity on the world’s poorest continent means the actual tallies are likely far higher.
In SA, the authorities are investigating suspect contracts worth about R5.05bn with some awarded to companies established shortly after the outbreak of the disease and owned by high-profile politicians’ relatives. President Cyril Ramaphosa has likened those who had illicitly profited to hyenas and vowed to hold them account, but no-one has been convicted so far.
Virus-related contracts
In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta this week followed Ramaphosa’s lead in ordering details of all virus-related contracts to be published online after irregularities were uncovered at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.
In Zimbabwe, Obadiah Moyo was sacked as health minister in July after being charged in ...