FEW days ago, there was commotion at Vehicle Inspection Department in Belvedere when driving schools demonstrated against what they called rampant corruption by VID officers.
It is common knowledge that acquiring a driver’s licence is a mountain to climb if one does not grease some officers.
Why does government not take action against such dangerous scourge? Where is the responsible Minister when the disease continues to spread?
The Ministry of Home Affairs should be applauded for reducing corruption at the Passport offices.
Can NetOne explain to us why it is difficult to top up airtime using our own local currency? If you do not have US$, then you are in trouble with recharging!
Corruption is rife in the Lands ministry, with the Zimbabwe Lands Commission last year saying it was handling over 1 500 disputes involving farm allocations and boundary rows.
Government is yet to honour its September 2021 promise to offer land to medical practitioners in private practice across the country’s 10 provinces.
Close to 372 medical practitioners under the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Zimbabwe Association (MDPPZA) were supposed to benefit.
MDPPZA members say they are now tired of being moved from one office to another, with officers from the Land ministry allegedly soliciting for bribes to process the papers.
As MDPPZA we requested this land through the office of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, but surprisingly, nothing has happened.
The Lands ministry now has a bad reputation.
Countries like China, North Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia impose capital punishments on a number of offences that include rape, grand theft, drug trafficking, treason, espionage political dissidence to mention just but a few.
The resultant executions are mostly carried out by firing squads, hanging or decapitations. The punishments are a deterrent to committing such crimes of high magnitude.
Corruption has been talked about in many countries but the scourge is threatening to decapitate the world, especially developing countries.
According to the African Union, about $140 billion dollars is lost to corruption in Africa, a figure which can sustain at least 30 African countries in 12 months even if there is zero production in the respective countries.
Transparency International estimates that close to US $2 billion is lost in Zimbabwe yearly to corruption.
The health sector is in the doldrums globally and corruption is fingered as one of the top causes.
Researchers estimate that about $455 billion of the $7,35 trillion dollars spent on health care annually is lost to fraud and corruption.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development posits that 1,6% of global annual deaths of children under five years of age are directly or indirectly linked to corruption.
So many factors have been implicated as precipitants for rampant corruption in the health sector in Zimbabwe and chief among them are chronic government underfunding, insufficient regulatory oversight, lack of transparency in government, lax prosecution.
The end result is general decay of infrastructure, equipment, poor service, poor quality of life, high morbidity and mortality rates among others.
You hear about bribes to pass Vehicle Inspection Department tests, you hear corruption at the Registrar’s office, corruption at courts or virtually at almost all places where services are sought.
We should never become accustomed to this dangerous scourge.
Government should flex muscles to wipe out corruption at all levels of governance.
Public hospitals and parastatals have been riddled with corruption.
In 2021, the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe confirmed the forfeiture of a Ruwa house belonging to former Parirenyatwa Hospital pharmacy stores controller, Tatenda Mwenye, which was believed to have been built from the proceeds of sleaze. If a pharmacy stores controller could raise money quickly to construct such a magnificent house within a few months, then the country will move at a snail’s speed.
How many people have been implicated in corruption and with our courts being seen as doing little to castigate corrupt criminals, the scourge will continue to trouble us forever.
Corruption is complex and multi-faceted and in the health sector, it has been found to have many forms in various areas, such as health facility construction, equipment and supply purchasing, pharmaceutical distribution and use, health worker education and the provision of health care services.
How much is lost healthcare facilities to corruption when even tender procedures are flouted willy-nilly?
How many hospital bosses have gone to jail for clear corruption at their institutions? It is time corruption is stemmed if the country is to have sound national development.
The time should be now that corruption is fought tooth and nail.
Many strategies are there to combat corruption and theft in public systems.
Some of them include adequate remuneration of healthcare workers, adequate financing of the public health system, ensuring social accountability and strengthening institutions outside the health system.
Deterrent sentences should be imposed on the culprits by the courts which up to now are seen to be too lax on corruption prosecution.
Stop corruption today to save everyone.