Wage bills at flagship Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital swelled by R48 million in one year after politicians appointed family members and friends
Senior politicians in Lesotho's Ministry of Health parachuted friends, family members and party comrades into jobs at the flagship Queen Mamohat Memorial Hospital (QMMH) in 2022, inflating the hospital's wage bill. Many of the new appointees were unqualified.
The first quarter of 2022 was the highest hiring period in the hospital's history, with 248 employees hired. This surpassed the previous record of hiring 27 people during the same period in 2021.
As a result, wage bills jumped from Mt6.5 million in January 2021 to Mt13 million in January 2022, and hospitals now have more administrative staff than technical staff. (M1 = R1. Lesotho loti and South African rand are fixed.)
The government has acknowledged that the large increase in employment is the main cause of salary delays, and employees have gone on strike this year for this reason.
The 425-bed Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital opened in 2011 and operates as a public-private partnership between the Government of Lesotho and the Tshepon Consortium, along with three other clinics. The main shareholder of the Tšepong consortium ($1.7 billion (US$100 million)) was South Africa's Netcare Group, and the contract was scheduled to run until 2026. However, in August 2021, the Lesotho government will prematurely terminate the contract with Tšepong and take control of the hospital and three clinics.
The Minister of Health who led the hospital's transition to a public-private partnership was Mr Semano Sekatle, representative of the All Basotho Treaty Party, who led the ruling coalition and made the decision to end the public-private partnership at QMMH. Mr Sekatle and his then chief secretary Hotaso Tsoana are now being accused by hospital staff of using the management change for personal and political gain.
Many of last year's new appointees are relatives, friends or fellow members of the All Basotho Congress (ABC) from Sekatle and Tsoana's political strongholds of Lebaken and Abia constituencies. Both men were appointed by the ABC-led government to head the Ministry of Health and oversaw the termination of the contract with Tshepong.
Secatl defected from the Democratic Congress (DC) party to the ABC in December 2018 and was immediately appointed health minister.
One of the Lebakken commissioners said that as Minister of Health, Mr. Sekator had hired many people from his constituency and neighboring constituencies to clinics and hospitals in and around the Nek district of Katya. “If you ask them how they got hired, they'll say, 'Re kentsoe ke Ntate Sekatle,' which roughly translates to mean they were hired by Sekatle.
Remarkably, Sekatle's daughter 'Mafakisane Sekatle' took on the hospital's top post, Finance Manager. When we asked Ms. Sekator how she was hired, as the job posting had not been published, and whether her father influenced her appointment, she told us: He redirected them to hospital spokesperson Sakane Mapeshon. “Hospital management said they don't know how she was hired, just like we don't know how everyone else was hired,” Mapeshone said. he said.
The daughter of Lebaken ABC constituency committee chairperson Marisebo Maketa has been hired as a junior in Mafakisane Sekatle's finance department. Ms Makesa confirmed that her daughter was recruited through a list submitted by her committee to the ABC MP's office in Lebakeng: Sekatoru.
Examples of other appointments directly related to Sekatle include his relative Molefi Sekatle who was appointed as a driver. His former driver's son, Lehlohonolo Mosala, was appointed as an administrative officer and Mohau Mabeli was appointed as a help desk worker. His mother was a close ally of Sekatle and a political candidate for Katyas Neku. The father of Labele Ntchochoba, who was appointed assistant accountant, is a friend of Sekatle.
Mr Tsoana is also believed to have been involved in these appointments. However, he declined to answer any questions about his role in recruiting staff for the hospital. He said the new administration's leaders should respond. But Mr Tsoana's successor, Moriehi Ntene, said all officials should explain the decisions they made while in office or “people will continue to get away with murder”.
The position was not announced.
Hospital staff who attended Tsoana's press conference to explain the termination of Tshepong's contract said the appointment came as a surprise. They understood at the briefing that there would be a 12-month transition period and no new staff would be hired during this period. But six months after his transition, in February 2022, the recruiting rush began.
Most of the 248 new hires during this period were lower-level workers such as assistants, cleaners, cooks, and gardeners. The 159 new hires in Q2 2021 were mainly made up of senior staff, of which only 117 had a base salary of more than K10,000. Hospital employees, who requested anonymity due to concerns about their jobs, claim that after the government took over, there was an influx of new employees “as if they were being unloaded from political trucks and dumped at the hospital.” are doing. ”.
“People suddenly started arriving and were immediately assigned to positions that didn't exist before. Some of the older staff were getting paid more as new people came into the office. '' said one staff member. “Some of these people were just out of school, but even though they had graduated and were waiting for their diplomas, they were appointed to high positions even though they had not yet graduated. The staff said there were no advertisements or notes about reservations, just a knock on the door announcing the existence of a reservation.
Secatle did not return multiple calls and ignored messages sent via WhatsApp seeking comment on the new staff's lack of qualifications and political and personal ties to Secatle and Tsoana. Tsoana only said that current health ministry officials from the ruling Revolutionary Prosperity Party (RPP) should accept the appointment.
Mr Ntene, the current principal secretary at the Ministry of Health, admitted in an interview that the appointments in question were “irregular”. The hospital's former managing director, Dr Chale Mozi, acknowledged that the appointment was “defective” in response to a May 2023 letter listing staff grievances.
Hospital spokesperson Maipeshoane said the salaries were increased as vacancies were filled. However, attempts to obtain details of the vacancy list from Human Resources Director Senjiwe Dlangamandla were unsuccessful. According to hospital staff, only about 10 of these positions actually became vacant after Tshepong's retirement, and the rest were newly created.
Chief Secretary Ntene said the number of administrative staff far exceeded the number of technical staff because recruitment procedures were not followed. She said hiring more staff than necessary creates problems such as salary delays.
In May this year, a strike over delayed salaries affected all departments, including the maternity ward, emergency room and kitchen. In July, hospital workers threatened to go on strike over unresolved grievances, including unpaid wages, non-payment of night shift allowances and unpaid leave.
A review of appointments revealed that most new hires had jobs created for them, many of the roles created had no formal job description, and many of the new roles were already filled by existing staff. It was suggested that there was overlap with work.
For example, during Tšepong's tenure, the hospital had a support services manager. After the change in government, the positions of administrative director, administrative director, and administrative assistant were created to accommodate new staff.
Hospital staff said the administrative director and administrative assistant had no experience but earned R15,000 and R12,500 respectively. Pay stubs confirm this.
In the finance department, two accountant positions were created in addition to the two existing finance clerk positions in the department.
Hospital staff said there had been salary delays since the post of salary administrator held by Tsietsi Polane was created in February 2022. Hospital workers are said to be paid after other civil servants are paid.
Mr Polane was fired from Standard Bank of Lesotho and was hired as the hospital's payroll manager in the first batch of 154 people hired in February 2022. Asked about salary delays, Polaine said there have been no salary delays since April of this year. He said previous delays were due to communication issues between the hospital and the Ministry of Health.
Under Tshepong's management, endless nurses' strikes occurred in hospitals. But employees say the situation has worsened since the government came to power. “Tshepong had its flaws, but it had never been so corrupt,” one employee said.
This article was produced by MNN Center for Investigative Reporting and distributed by IJ Hub on behalf of the Southern Africa Member Center Network. Co-published with GroundUp.