“Accountability” as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the quality or state of being accountable i.e. an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions”. My professional training as a doctor made me aware of my accountability for my actions as a health professional. Accountability directly to my patient, a child in my case as a paediatrician, their parents and extended family. Accountability to the professional body with which I was registered to practice as well as to my employer, a public sector health department and university. Later when I moved into health management in 1995, I became legally accountable in terms of the Public Finance Management Act…
-
-
The Cancer of Corruption in Health
Corruption is a word that has become all too familiar in the lexicon of the ordinary South African. Billions rands of government funds have ended up in the hands of corrupt individuals many of whom by virtue of their positions should have been people with integrity and above reproach. Transparency International reports that the Corruption Perceptions Index places the country at 71 out of the 180 countries. The 2017 Corruption Watch annual report quotes the then Economic Development Minister as estimating that corruption costs the public sector at least R27 billion annually. During my initial experience heading the Free State health Department in the late 1990’s I uncovered corruption at…