Veil of silence falls over health department kickback probe.

IZINDABA 626 Protracted inaction, avoidance, broken undertakings and suspicion have greeted Izindaba attempts to report the fate of a top official in the national health department's Foreign Workforce Management Programme (FWMP) found guilty internally of taking kickbacks. Besides confirming that Sean-Allen Smith, a pivotal player in the ongoing placement of foreign doctors and a deputy director in the national health department, was found guilty of taking kickbacks, the department failed to reply in any lucid form to questions repeatedly faxed, e-mailed and posed verbally. This after Advocate Thomas Ngake, Director of Employee Relations, Equity and Wellness at the national health department, last July spoke breathlessly of an allegedly shady 'web' reaching into Home Affairs, the Health Professions Council and the health department's FWMP. He described the matter as 'very sensitive', with 'serious political implications' that 'involve management and beyond'. At the time Ngake confirmed that the chief suspect was being grilled at a separate in camera internal disciplinary hearing after a forensic probe 'dating back over several years' and added that a second suspect, a security officer, was also involved. However, a year and a host of unanswered, avoided, forgotten or tersely dismissed e-mails and phone calls later, Ngake and the communications director he referred Izindaba to, Fidel Hadebe, have fallen virtually silent. Ngake's most recent response (29 July this year) to specific and repeatedly faxed and e-mailed questions was a terse 'fact are not correct and it is policy of the dept to make a press lease after disciplinary enquiries' [sic]. Attempts to clarify whether he meant that it was not the policy of the department to issue press releases after disciplinary enquiries were unsuccessful. In April this year Ngake promised, 'we will have a press conference'. Smith came to the attention of Izindaba readers in October 2006 as a key player in an award-winning feature story about the possible impending (2008) collapse of the rural health care system because of a paucity of foreign-qualified doctors and community service doctors. These two cadres form the backbone of the rural public health care delivery system. The story centred on the impact of the then new two-year internship on community service staffing while highlighting problems in recruiting and placing vital foreign doctors. The two-year internship reduced available community service conscripts by 78% last year and put rural hospitals, in particular, under immense pressure, increasing reliance on foreign-qualified doctors. Private recruiting agencies …