KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani has said contracts for the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) and the Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) in 21 provinces of the country were against the procurement system.
A statement from the Presidential Palace quoted President Ghani as saying this at a meeting of representatives from the Ministry of Public Health, the National Procurement Office and the World Bank at the Presidential Palace on Friday evening.
The president said people in 21 provinces were not satisfied with health services by 27 national and international organizations.
He said corruption, incompetency, late payment of salaries to staff and absence of facilities for women threatened lives of mothers.
The president did not name any particular organization, but said previous contracts for three years with non-governmental organizations were against the procurement procedure.
The president extended the contracts of the organizations for another six months, the statement said.
The president said he would assess health services of 27 national and international organizations with governors of the provinces concerned through video conferences.
He directed public health minister to closely review the implementation of the projects and share his findings with him.
Such contracts with non-governmental organizations would be signed based on their performance in future, Ghani added.
The statement said World Bank representative Shubham Chaudhuri confirmed the president’s statement and said the performance of non-government organizations should be accurately assessed after their projects were implemented.
The public health minister assured the meeting that he had launched work on eradication of corruption in his ministry.
He assured if any public health officer was found guilty of corruption, he or she would be brought to justice.
The purpose of the BPHS is to ensure that all primary health care facilities deliver a standardized package of basic services. (Pajhwok)