THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care will engage the Finance ministry on the allowances of central hospital chief executives after discovering that there was no limit. JUNIOR MOYO OWN CORRESPONDENT
This emerged after the committee discovered that chief executives were driving top-of-the-range vehicles that were hired at premium rates from CMED (Pvt) Ltd when the health institutions they are heading were struggling to provide services due to limited resources.
Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital’s Leonard Mabhande, Mpilo Central Hospital’s Lawrence Mantiziba and United Bulawayo Hospital’s Nonhlanhla Ndlovu drive Mercedes-Benz vehicles hired from CMED at a cost of about $6 000 per month while receiving fuel allocations of up to 420 litres a month. Ndlovu and her directors also get cellphone allowances of between $100 and $600 a month.
In an interview on Friday, the committee chairperson Ruth Labode said the contract for hospital bosses’ allowances wasn’t clear and needed to be revised.
“We will write a report back to Parliament and engage the Finance minister (Patrick Chinamasa) because we want the contract to be retrieved as it is unclear how much the CEOs are entitled to. These allowances being abused can contribute a lot towards the development of the health institutions,” Labode said.
“We understand that the country is under financial crises, but people need to use the limited resources sparingly.”
Labode expressed concerns over the abuse of equipment like ambulances in hospitals saying people who engaged in such behaviour should be arrested.
