Bashir Hospital ‘graft’ case referred to anti-corruption agency

AMMAN — Prime Minister Omar Razzaz on Monday said that the government had referred the case of a housekeeping company at Al Bashir Hospital to the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (JIACC) for investigation.

The case involves suspicions of having hundreds of employees on fake lists as service employees who receive salaries without going to work, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

During a visit to the hospital, Razzaz said that he contacted JIACC president to examine the case thoroughly, stressing that the government will receive a detailed report on the case from the commission within 10 days.

Meeting with Bashir Hospital Director Mahmoud Zureigat, the prime minister said that the government would not allow corruption or squandering public money.

He stressed that the government’s duty is to ensure that such money is spent in the right way through presenting services to Jordanians.

Razzaz’s visit came after Zureigat revealed an alleged corruption case against the company that offers cleaning services at the hospital.

The premier noted that the visit follows His Majesty King Abdullah’s tour of the facility, during which he directed stakeholders to reform the health sector, in general, and Al Bashir Hospital, in particular, which presents “low-quality” services to hundreds of thousands of citizens.

Many procedures have been made to improve the level of services at the hospital, including establishing a new emergency building and monitoring the cleaning services, Razzaz said, adding that Zureigat noticed a low level of cleaning services and fake numbers of employees, and received death threats from some of them. 

The government will not allow any violation of the law and its sovereignty and will apply it to all without any hesitance, the premier stressed.

He also expressed appreciation for the security apparatuses for their role in protecting the hospital.

Health Minister Mahmoud Sheyyab said that cleaning, transport, maintenance and culinary services have been provided by the private sector for a long time, noting that the experience is “unsatisfactory” and has many shortcomings and that the ministry is considering alternative solutions. 

Sheyyab offered two solutions that are being considered for the services: the first is through self-administration and the second is through benefiting from the expertise of the Greater Amman Municipality, Petra added. 

Interior Minister Samir Mubaidin said that the ministry and its departments are entitled to maintaining security and order, stressing that “there is no side above the law, where the ministry will allow nobody to threaten public employees and ban them from doing their jobs”. 

Later in the day, a JIACC team embarked on field work at the hospital to examine the case that included revealing lists of people, amount to 800 workers, who were reportedly registered on the payroll without showing up to work, according to Petra. 

The team will review employee registers, their salaries and allowances disbursed to them to ensure their eligibility and to check on any possible violations perpetrated by contractors and hospital employees over the past years, a JIACC source told Petra.