The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Health for All Coalition (HFAC) are two separate institutions with programme objectives rooted in support for accountability, transparency, enhancing service provision and delivery in promoting good governance.
These institutions will make critical impact by cooperating in all areas of joint focus and interest. It is against this background that the ACC and the HFAC freely entered into this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in order to formally define those areas where collaboration can be sought, as well as strengthened.
The MOU was yesterday signed by Mr. Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara Commissioner of ACC and Mr. Charles Mambu, Executive Director HFAC and witnessed by the Deputy Minister I (one) of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in the presence of representatives from DFID, GIZ, UN Aid and members of the press at the ACC conference room at Gloucester Street.
Mr. Charles Mambu, Executive Director of HFAC, stated that with support from their development partners who before this time have given them a yard stick to meet in the first quarter of this year as they were not only expected to meet the target but to go beyond it, and as a result of that their engagement with the Commissioner, deputy Commissioner and staff of ACC had been one of their turning point in their four years of operation as coalition.
“This is not our first engagement with the ACC, but it will go to mark as the turning point of their engagement, as the ACC is not a bad institution like many other institutions. However, because of their name many people across the world tend not to go very close to them for fear that they will have the most poisonous snake around them that might bite you when you go closer to them,” he says.
He explained that on the view of Health for All Coalition, they actually think contrary to that as they want to use the opportunity to send a strong message to all their partners, civil society, NGOs and the Government that the ACC is a partner in development.
He maintained HFAC made their first approach to the ACC in 2009 but due to the engagement of ACC at that time they were unable to respond to their request of looking into their system and review it in the area of strength and weaknesses, but after some time with persistent approach, the Commissioner assigned the deputy Commissioner to work out the modalities with them, as a result they were able to highlight all their areas of weaknesses, adding that at the latter point the Commissions attitude had demonstrated that those negative thoughts that some people have about the commission are not true as the Commission is indeed a partner in development.
“It is against this background that we said it is better for us to have a formal Memorandum of Understanding with ACC so that it can actually be a frame work for our desire to ensure social transparency and accountability in service delivery especially in the health sector as we are looking at the component of the health sector from the national health sector strategic plan which is a broader plan developed by the Ministry of Health as Free Health Care is just a component of that plan,” he added
Mr. Joseph F. Kamara-Commissioner of ACC disclosed that it is true that they do not often have many visitors for many reasons as most times people perceive him as a very wicked man who always wants to give problem to people, as a result they as a Commission have a lot of work to do in terms of public relations for people to understand that they at the ACC have a job and a mandate to execute, and in the process they are not only prosecutors, but gladiators as it is not all the time they seek and just take the bad guys to jail.
“We also look at systems review to examine the system of the MDAs, what is wrong, what are the inefficiencies and how to limit them in these MDAs. There are a lot of leakages in the system that needs to be stopped,” he says.
Mr. Kamara cited the health sector as one of the systems review they have done and have presented the report to the Ministry of Health as they have been always calling on the government and all the different MDAs to consider looking into these reports closer, find out the dedication aspect of it and act upon them. “Beyond the report we have also done monitoring of the Ministry of Health to see the compliance for the report that we submit, as the Free Health sector has become a focal point of government and of our development partners,” he says.
He explained that there has been an international call even from Amnesty International as not a day will pass without him receiving a letter from someone in Singapore, Papua New Guinea calling on the ACC to take action into the issue of the free health care considering the Human Development Index in the country. He added that this is an international issue for people who are concerned with the health sector and welfare for the people, as a result of that they at ACC from the point of view of good governance and social deliverables, it is their mandate to investigate.
According to him they have had a lot of engagement with HFAC which have been positive, and the signing of the MOU is a significant mile stone towards achieving their goal in the health sector.
ADVERTISEMENT