adminForward Nyanyiwa Correspondent
THE Nurses Council of Zimbabwe could have been prejudiced of thousands of dollars in an alleged abuse of sitting and foreign travel allowances by board members who have been in office for the past four years, The Herald can reveal.
At the height of sleeze, the council recently purchased a “presidential” chair worth US$2 600 for the board chairperson.
The alleged abuse of funds has crippled the council which has now been forced to stall important projects to the extent of nurses sleeping at their offices awaiting practising certificates.
Currently, the council is using computers which an audit in 2017 valued at a paltry US1$ per unit.
An impeccable source at the council revealed that the 15-member Mrs Lillian Dodzo-led board allocated themselves US$2 000 each as travel allowances in their recent trip to Ghana on top of accommodation, food allowances and “shopping allowances” which were all footed from the Nurses Council coffers.
Sources also added that the board members have been meeting regularly, as much as 25 times annually instead of four times a year as stipulated by the Health Professions Act.
At such meetings, the source alleges, they get daily allowances of $300 and 150 litres of fuel per head.
The allowances have been abused as the board has met more than the stipulated number of times.
“The law stipulates that they are supposed to meet at least four times a year but an individual can sit up to 25 meetings annually. They also accord themselves breakfast and lunch at such meetings on top of the allowances,” said a source.
The alleged abuse of funds has seen the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe shelving some projects including digitisation of their systems and the much-touted decentralisation of the council’s operations.
A review of their computers by both internal and external auditors in 2016 and 2017 revealed that their machines were outdated and of no market value and they were ordered to purchase new computers but they are yet to do so, arguing that there are no funds.
Contacted for comment, board chairperson Mrs Dodzo refuted the allegations saying whatever they are doing was above board.
“About allowances, it’s not true that we are getting that much. When people come for meetings, there is a sitting allowance of RTGS75,00 which is taxed and it is the lowest if you compare with other councils,” she said.
When quizzed about the foreign travel allowances which were reportedly said to have been given to members who went to Ghana, Mrs Dodzo professed ignorance before asking this writer to check with Mr Enoch Dongo, the Zimbabawe Nurses Association (ZINA) president, who was recently co-opted onto the board by the minister.
This was despite the fact that Mr Dongo has never sat in any board meeting ever since his appointment in February this year.
“I am not aware of this, the good thing is (Mr) Dongo has been appointed by the minister to be one of the board members and in future you will be able to verify with him,” said Mrs Dodzo.
Mr Dongo said he was seized with the alleged rot at the council.
“It is negatively affecting our membership and we can’t have nurses coming from Bulawayo to get practising certificates in Harare.
“They are yet to decentralise and we have complaints from nurses about the delays in updating of subscription payments. We actually want to know what they have been doing with nurses’ money since they came into office. The conference centre they talk about was built by the previous board,” said Mr Dongo.
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