“If you have specific allegations, I’ll look into it,” he said on Thursday at ICDDR,B while replying a question on the Berlin-based graft watchdog’s report on the health sector.
The minister was inaugurating ICDDR,B’s ‘Health System Strengthening Programme’ for Sirajganj General Hospital and Institute of Child and Mother Health at Matuail.
Earlier, the TIB had alleged in a report that doctors recruited on ad-hoc basis had to pay between Tk 0.3 million to Tk 0.5 million to get jobs.
The previous Awami League government had recruited over 4,500 such doctors.
TIB, however, did not specify how many medics paid money to get the job and to whom the bribes were paid.
The report accused members of the ruling Awami League’s medical group Swachip’s field officials, office assistance, and administrative officials of taking the money for ‘managing’ the job.
The accusation is based on a ‘focus group discussion (FGD)’ of 36 people involved in this sector and one-to-one interview of some key health sector informants.
TIB came up with these findings in its report on ‘Challenges of the health sector’s governance and way out’ that identified a plethora of irregularities plaguing sector for decades.
TIB says lack of governance, improper implementation of laws, and politics stand in the way of removing corruption and irregularities from the health sector.
The health minister said he would take actions if the TIB give specific information.
“The TIB usually makes sweeping comments in their report,” he said.
But he promised to check and take actions if the allegations proved correct.
TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman earlier at the press briefing said they would not give any specific names. “It’s not our mandate. It’s a qualitative report that we put forward for consideration and necessary action.”
Swachip Secretary General Prof Iqbal Arslan also sought specific information.
“The (TIB) report is partly true,” he told bdnews24.com.
It recommended 17 measures to deal with problems in the crucial sector.
Recommendations include making public a data-base of doctors with their degrees and to provide proper housing facilities for doctors at their rural workstations.