THE Zimbabwe Women against Corruption Trust (ZWACT) has urged government to strengthen internal systems for detecting corruption as this will help victims of corruption to report and shame the perpetrators.
ZWACT is a non-governmental organization aimed at campaigning against corruption and raising awareness about its devastating impact on grassroots women and girls in Zimbabwe.
In a statement yesterday, ZWACT said: “Government should strengthen internal systems for detecting corruption through adopting anonymous reporting mechanisms at public health facilities. This will encourage victims of corruption to report thereby denouncing all forms of corruption hindering the accessibility of basic services.”
This comes after a ZWACT research exposed that pregnant women in the country are forced to pay bribes to get preferential treatment at hospitals.
The report said they fail to report the cases due to fear of being victimized when in labour pain.
“We therefore call on government to consider providing safe reporting channels as a means of combating the high increase of corruption in the health sector.”
ZWACT director Sandra Matendere told NewsDay: “We are advocating for a separate anti-corruption desk at all public health institutions where people can report corruption unanimously.”