By Dennis Ndlovu
A review of Zimbabwe’s health sector has laid bare a litany of procurement scandals and chronic project failures, revealing a system where payments are made for undelivered goods and construction projects remain unfinished for decades.
According to a trend analysis of Auditor General reports (2020-2024), a pattern of high-profile supplier and contract failures intensified from 2021. Key cases include:
· 2021: Gwanda Hospital paid for medicines that were never delivered by Greenwood Pharmacy.
· 2022: The government paid for 16.95 million COVID-19 vaccine doses but received only 16.2 million, leaving 750,000 doses unaccounted for.
· 2023: Gweru Provincial Hospital paid 26.5% above the quoted price for an autoclave, a clear breach of value-for-money principles.
· 2024: The construction of Lupane Provincial Hospital, which began in 2003, remains stalled, emblematic of a wider failure in project delivery.
The report highlights that 37 stalled capital projects, with a collective value of $98.7 million, are severely hindering the expansion of healthcare capacity.
While formal compliance with procurement rules improved from 40% to 73% over the five-year period, the report stresses that this has not translated into operational success. The most persistent weakness is missing documentation, including invoices, payment vouchers, and delivery notes, pointing to a systemic failure in foundational controls.
The analysis concludes that without urgent operational reforms and vigorous anti-corruption enforcement, the health sector will continue to fail in its mandate to provide essential services
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