The recently established (or annointed) Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) discovered gross corruption in the recruitment and selection process of trainee nurses. The corruption was unearthed after ZACC conducted sort of an audit at six major hospital in the country. ZACC’S spokesperson, John Makamure said:
We carried out Systems Review exercises in five of the six central hospitals in Zimbabwe on the recruitment and selection of trainee registered nurses.
Our findings were quite alarming; there was rampant bribery for one to enrol as a trainee nurse.
Some authorities made brisk business on unsuspecting poor candidates.
One hospital has internal policies that benefit staff dependents while the public is cheated to apply and attend interviews.
Minister of Health, Obadiah Moyo had already highlighted the corruption taking place at public health institutions and introducing an online portal was the solution to this problem. Prospective nurses use the portal to register which, ultimately, gives everyone an equal chance of being recruited as anybody can file their application.
Whilst the online portal will certainly do away with a huge chunk of corruption in the recruitment of trainees, an additional step of setting up of proper internal control systems, with reference to ZACC’S findings, can further eradicate corruption.
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You don’t need audits to implement best practices, neither was ZACC needed unearth these corrupt activities. It was publicly known that it was difficult to get a student nursing place without knowing someone.
These audits sometimes waste time and effort documenting what is already known. Then we give them a pat of the back for a job well done. If they were thorough, we should have people resigning, being sacked or arrested at the nursing school. But, it’s pretty much business as usual, save for the online portal.