UPND YOUTHS SMELL CORRUPTION IN RECRUITMENT OF VOLUNTEERS

UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) youths in Lusaka have requested the Ministry of Health to publish the names of health volunteers who have been employed recently as they suspect glaring corruption in the process by the supervisors.

Recently, President Hakainde Hichilema directed that all the health personnel who were volunteering by working at the cholera centre to ease the cholera disease burden be employed immediately for their dedication to duty when it was not fashionable to do so.

Following the directive, reports suggested that supervisors were replacing names of deserving individuals who had offered their services as volunteers and putting relatives and those from which they solicited bribes from in exchange for jobs.

Health Minister Sylvia Masebo then went on a fact-finding mission where she spent a night at the Heroes stadium to get to the bottom of the matter and discovered that some supervisors had come up with new log books where they accommodated individuals who were not volunteering at the expense of those who had been manning the facility.

This led to some of the supervisors being sent away to pave way for further investigations into the mischief.

Now, Lusaka Province party youth coordinator Mulemwa Namushi has demanded for the publishing of the names of all those employed on account of volunteering as the youths smell over the exercise, charging that it could have been marred with corruption if stringent measures were not put in place.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Namushi called on the Ministry of Health to publish the names of confirmed individuals in the newspapers for the sake of transparency.

He said names of those confirmed must be published in the newspaper because the recruitment was shrouded in controversy.

“Let them publish the names of those that have been confirmed in the newspapers so that we know which volunteer has been employed and who has been left out. Otherwise, they may just give their relatives and friends jobs against President Hakainde Hichilema’s wish,” Mr. Namushi said.

He said according to the letter signed by the Lusaka Province Health Director, volunteers were being requested to apply and that those who qualified should be 35 years and above, contrary to President Hichilema’s directive.

He said President Hichilema directed the Ministry of Health to unconditionally employ volunteers by giving them permanent jobs as he was touched because they were risking their lives, taking care of cholera patients.

“The President neither asked any volunteer to write application letters nor indicated that only those with trades will be given jobs in the Ministry of Health. He was moved by their voluntary work which is risky. As you know, they were going to contract cholera in the line of duty,” he said.

And Mr. Namushi has questioned the rationale behind paying volunteers K100 per day as missing lunch allowance.