African countries have generally handled their coronavirus response better than many experts feared, except for one detail: managing corruption.
Preliminary investigations show officials who’ve illicitly benefited largely adopted similar methods: awarding contracts to companies owned by relatives or friends to supply medical equipment and services to the state at inflated prices in exchange for kickbacks. The relaxation of tender and procurement rules as governments rushed to prepare health systems for an anticipated influx of patients made it easier for funds to be misappropriated.
With probes ongoing in several countries, the extent of the plunder is still unknown, but is set to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, articulated the public outrage that the profiteering has elicited in an online briefing last month.
In South Africa, the authorities are probing suspect contracts worth almost R5 billion - some awarded to companies established shortly after the outbreak of the disease and owned by high-profile politicians’ relatives. President Cyril Ramaphosa has likened those who had illicitly profited to hyenas and vowed to hold them account, but no-one has been convicted so far.
In Zimbabwe, Obadiah Moyo was sacked as health minister in July after being charged in connection with the unlawful procurement of $75 million worth of medical equipment. Virus-related scandals have also cost health officials in Botswana, Somalia and Uganda their jobs, and have implicated cabinet ministers in Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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