‘We need a systems review for outsourced work at CWMH’

HEALTH Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong says the ministry will have to relook at its processes and the manner in which outsourced work was monitored.

He said this in relation to the recent revelation by The Fiji Times that a $2.5 million annual contract was awarded to a local firm to clean the Colonial War Memorial Hospital over the past few years.

The public and organisations like the International Women’s Association had raised concerns about the decrepit state of toilets and poor hygienic standards of toilets at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital’s Maternity and Children’s wards.

Concerned about the poor state of sanitation facilities, a local company conducted a deep sanitisation of both facilities and a call for public engagement resulted in a major cleanup of the hospital on Saturday, February 25.

Dr Fong said instead of pointing fingers at the firm contracted to do the cleaning, people needed to understand that the CWM Hospital was old, it had poor infrastructure and poor maintenance program.

“What we need is a systems review, and especially a review of how outsourced work, like cleaning contracts, are monitored and who does the monitoring,” he said.

“We had ward Sisters asked to monitor the level of toilet cleaning conducted by the contracted company – they are not clinicians.

“And this is what we are focusing on going forward.”

When asked which company received the contract and how they obtained it, Dr Fong said there was an EOI (expression of interest) process.

“The Health Ministry will do a tech review on the EOI conditions then the GTB (Government Tender Board) does the selection.

“The party selected will work within strict parameters, MOH has to audit the company’s performance based on indicators.

“To work out what the issues are will need a review of the governance process.

“In my view while it is clear that the output was suboptimal, there are a range of factors involved and that outsourcing process including the process of ongoing monitoring will need a serious redoing.”