Gwanda Provincial Hospital has come under fire for distributing rice meant for patients to its staff members.
The looted rice had been delivered to the institution through a government Drought Relief Programme which also seen the disbursement of 63.121 tonnes of rice to all hospitals and prisons in the province at the height of food shortages last year.
The hospital, a major referral centre in Zimbabwe’s drought prone Matebeleland South Province was among the public institutions that benefited from the rice donation under the drought mitigation programme is in hot soup after diverting part of the consignment to staff members.
Social Service Department provincial head Mr Totamirepi Tirivai said of the 8.33 tonnes of rice donated to the hospital 5 tonnes were shared among the staff members without the knowledge of the provincial medical director nor the drought relief committee.
The hospital management told a monitoring team that investigated the matter that the reason for diverting the consignment is that the rice was nearing its expiry date.
The acting provincial administrator Ms Sithandiwe Ncube confirmed the development adding those who misappropriated the relief aid at the expense of the patients have since been requested to bring back the rice.
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