Anti-Graft Unit Says Health Center’s Procurements Were Correct
The government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Friday that it has investigated the public procurements of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD Control (NCHADS) and found they were carried out correctly, despite an exhaustive investigation by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria that found large-scale corruption involving an official at the center. Last week, Global Fund released the results of a more than two-year-long investigation that found that a senior procurement officer with NCHADS had told companies that they could only secure government contracts if they paid him bribes of up to 15 percent of the contracts’ value. According to the investigation, the NCHADS procurement officer directed $317,000 worth of Global Fund money to firms that had paid the bribe. … The Global Fund investigation also revealed corruption at the National Malaria Center (CNM) and said that more than $12 million in funding had been compromised by corrupt officials at both the CNM and NCHADS. A World Health Organization official and the health NGO umbrella group MediCam were also implicated in the graft. “[T]he public procurements of the National Center for HIV/ AIDS, Dermatology and STD [Control] were done correctly and in compliance with public procurement procedures,” the ACU said in a statement posted to its website Friday. … According to the ACU, in compliance with national law, all procurements by NCHADS were advertised in the media, although the ACU noticed a lack of variety in the companies submitting bids. “The Information dissemination on media did not bring much effectiveness because the same companies applied for public procurements,” the ACU said. …
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-graft-unit-says-health-centers-procurements-were-correct-47767/
