GHANAIANS ARE SABOTAGING GHANA!

The National Health Insurance Scheme is failing!! The rationale behind the scheme has been trivialized! It is an open secret that the scheme has been abused! Drugs meant for patients, are being hoarded! This is a trend in most public hospitals in this country! Yes, such are the crimes being committed at our hospital pharmacies! Patients are usually referred to other pharmacies to purchase their own drugs since the prescriptions, we are told, are unavailable!

Unknown to us, the records later indicate that those drugs have been administered to us for the National Health Insurance Scheme to be charged, whiles the wicked perpetrators later sell those drugs to the cash and carry patients or drug distributors! And the cycle begins! People are dying, as a result of this practice because we are always told that drugs are unavailable, especially when costly!

This is not a cooked up story! It is the story of a recent encounter! What is the government doing about such operations? What measures have been put in place to check the activities of our health workers? Do we have auditors in this country? An investigation ought to be conducted, as a matter of urgency! This is happening across the nation!

The sabotage is not only in our hospitals, it is also happening at our work places! What is happening at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation? I smell a conspiracy! I smell sabotage! Each day, Ghanaians are told stories! The government usually tells us of the receipt of huge volumes of fuel and gas. These items however, do not seem to find their way to our markets! It is evident in our frequent shortages! A large volume of these items seem to get lost in transit! It does not add up! What is the real story? We need to hear it!

I suspect foul play! I believe that the commodities are being hoarded for a much higher price in the lean season! The actual volumes that we are told about, never reach the Ghanaian market! People are bunkering these commodities! We have been told of how our fuel is being smuggled across our borders! How are they smuggled? Who does the smuggling? We need to hear the true story! The losses in our distribution system need to be thoroughly investigated! This is an issue that must not be dealt with lightly! Where are the auditors?

Ghanaians are sabotaging Ghana! Yes, quite recently, our media covered stories of how generators which had been imported into this country to boost power had been sitting idle! Those machines were idle despite the power crisis! Instead of distributing the generators to the various regions to boost power supply, someone seemed to have a different plan; the generators could be sold to boost his or her pocket! I am even told that in some places, the actual number that had been requested for never found their way to their destinations, although the record showed that! Yes, a whole generator seems to have been lost in transit!

It is the same in several governmental institutions! Several vehicles and machines lie abandoned! All they require is a simple repair! But somehow, someone sees it wise to allow them to spoil; to go waste! By going waste, they can be sold as scraps! Accordingly, this country has lost huge revenue and resources, and still does! Vehicles and machines, that are repairable are written off as irreparable, and then sold off as scraps! Such people ought to be brought to book! Where are our auditors?

Fuel to be used to run our plants, vehicles, and equipment are sold off each day in Ghana! Drugs to be given out to patients are hoarded and sold off each day in our hospitals! Machines in good shape are written off and sold as scrap! Office equipment in our governmental and at times, private institutions, is sold off! Educational materials to be supplied to our schools are hoarded and sold off! Equipment for our hospitals and other institutions are sold off! Items to be given out to charity are sold! Items to be distributed to the public are usually taken home! And of course, the usual ghost names! These ghosts exist in all institutions, both public and private! I am very positive that soon, we would all be sold off!

Have we no shame? Have we lost all shame and dignity? Has the Ghanaian lost all sense of humanity?

Ghana needs serious investigations into the affairs of local workers, especially in the public institutions! The activities of workers in the sector, leaves much more to be desired! We need no longer close our eyes to these issues because in the end, we all suffer! This country needs to conduct a serious audit into all sectors and institutions because the activities in these places, is a huge disgrace to this nation! Are the auditors in this country functional?

Anna Esi Hanson (nnhanson2@yahoo.com), Takoradi.