Hiring screw-up at Ministry of Health

Newly-established Directorate of Public Health Institute of Malawi (Phim) in the Ministry of Health is embroiled in recruitment irregularities, which have attracted a query from the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Ministry of Health is yet to provide the Office of the Ombudsman with justification and a deadline set to hear responses from the ministry has since passed.

In breaking set procedures, we have found that the directorate transferred some qualified people and replaced them with unqualified ones.

The directorate, which started in 2006 as a team of experts in the ministry, was fully-established in June 2020 following a World Health Organisation (WHO) call for member States to strengthen capacities in detecting, reporting and responding to public health emergencies of national and international concerns (Pheics).

Procedurally, in the new recruitment agreement, employees posted to Phim on administrative arrangement were first to be voluntarily absorbed into the directorate, before filling vacant positions with staff from other departments.

However, a directive from the Secretary for Health to advertise the vacancies precipitated a wind of irregularities that saw officials taking on board unqualified individuals, and transferring some qualified ones.

Our investigations reveal that as part of recruitment, employees were transferred out of Phim to create space for newcomers without following recommendations stated in a redeployment letter we have seen, dated November 10 2022.

The letter indicated that officers who did not have requisite qualifications were re-deployed to various duty stations.

Contrary to this letter, some officers who were transferred were neither told to apply nor invited to attend interviews.

Some officers claim that the ministry invited them to attend interviews but later stopped them while others received calls that they were successful after interviews, only to be told later that they had failed.

In a WhatsApp response on March 20 2023, former Secretary for Health Dr Charles Mwansambo said the Health Services Commission (HSC), which is an independent institution, conducted recruitment by following government policies and procedures.

When we contacted Health Service Commission director of human resources Duff Msukwa on April 22 2023, he said his office had just submitted a report to the Office of the Ombudsman in which all the matters raised had been put in the right perspective.

A source, who did not want to be named, said he applied and was called by three officials from the Health Service Commission that he had been shortlisted for interviews in Blantyre. But he said on the day of the interviews, he received another call advising him not to attend the interviews since he was not shortlisted.

“It was shocking because I received the call when I was already in Blantyre for the interviews. I asked why in the previous call they had indicated that I had been shortlisted, the response I got was that the call was not supposed to come to me, something which did not make sense because they had verified my details,” he said.

This same person was surprised a month later to receive a letter that he had been re-deployed from the directorate.

Another source said he was moved from Phim to a district hospital to accommodate newcomers following a communication from the Ministry of Health.

He said when he reported at the hospital, he was sent back.

“They said there was no communication about my deployment to the district hospital,” he said.

Six employees transferred from Phim did not attend interviews, but were on the list which was against the communication.

People who attended interviews also received contradictory messages. A source who did not want to be named claimed they received a phone call informing them they were successful; hence, should prepare for a new office.

“I verified the news with the director of the laboratory whose response was just a text message saying ‘Congratulations!’

“After some days, I realised that there was nothing. No letter whatsoever. I made an inquiry with a human resource officer who told me that I was not even shortlisted for interviews and yet I had attended interviews and submitted my papers to the interview panel,” the source explained.

Our investigation also established that officers who were already at grade F applied and competed for the same grade, contrary to the specified eligibility criteria in the advert of March 26 2022, which left out individuals serving at the same grade as the purpose was to promote staff from lower grades.

The participation of staff at the same grade, therefore, was against requirements; hence, placed others at a disadvantage.

Contrary to the specified requirements, the department hired some officers from Kamuzu Central Hospital, who were already on P5 grade.

For grade F, the advert in the health reference laboratory division had a provision for a waiver for staff who had served 10 years or more at grade I to apply for the position.

It stated that the applicant had to move from Grade I to Grade F if she/he had a masters or PhD degree.

A source said this only benefited one person who was hired to head the microbiology laboratory despite not having prerequisite qualifications.

But when we contacted the person, he said he resigned from the Ministry of Health and asked us to talk to the Health Service Commission.

 The ministry on May 13 2019 hired a medical doctor from Kamuzu Central Hospital to the directorate on an administrative post but without indicating what the officer would be doing.

A letter we have sourced reference number MOH/PF/CLN/1154 indicated that the person in question was transferred to Phim on a temporary basis.

To date, the person is still at Phim and sources claim that she has been promoted to P5 and is addressed as chief epidemiology officer, when the department had no such vacancy.

The Ombudsman also asked the Ministry of Health to explain why the doctor was posted to Phim.

When we contacted the doctor on June 6 2023, she wondered why we contacted her when the letter from the Ombudsman was addressed to the Ministry of Health.

On his part,  Phim director Dr Ben Chilima when asked to justify decisions at the institution, he said he had no mandate to assess or screen papers of any candidate prior to interviews as MoH has a directorate responsible for all appointments.

Since April 19 2023, we have not received any response from the Health Service Commission on the issues.

The ministry’s spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said the ministry will only comment on the issue after the Office of the Ombudsman concludes the matter.