THE SA CULTURE AND ETHICS Part Three

Within hours of the release detailing the IHQ team’s findings from Zimbabwe questions began to pour in from persons who had served at Howard Hospital or who had 1st hand contact and knowledge. And, the one question that should have been asked, and which the FSAOF would like answered is, where’s the rest of your findings?

Here’s what we know and where we feel the team fell far short in both their fact finding and reporting:

1.    Donations made through "official" Army channels were delayed and often not properly documented. There has NEVER been any accusation that monies given directly to Dr. Thistle or hand-delivered to Dr. Thistle by volunteers coming to Zimbabwe were anything less than fully accounted for with receipts into the Army books. It is a known fact that other SA mission-based operations in Zimbabwe had been assessed as much as a 30% fee by THQ Zim.

2.    We have had a first-hand account from staff at Howard, who report that as of November 9, 2012 there was no sign of a container of medical/ pharmaceutical supplies and in fact, the pharmacy hasn’t even ha the basic much needed drugs in its inventory such as Ibuprofen and Amoxicillin.

3.    There are a total of approximately 144 beds at Howard. On November 9, 2012 five of the thirty-two beds in the male ward were occupied, seven of the thirty-two beds were occupied in the female ward, twenty of the forty beds were occupied in the Children’s and Therapeutic wards. 

These are wards that under Dr. Thistle’s leadership were full to capacity every day and in many cases there were makeshift beds set up on the floor to accommodate overflow.

4.    The morning of November 9th there were 30 people lined up at the outpatient clinic when the hospital opened. This is in stark contrast to 100 on a slow day and 200-300 on a normal day, every day, some even sleeping on the ground overnight to be first in line. So you see, although the numbers may not be as low as they originally were when the crisis first started, they are still abysmal compared to Howard’s better days when it was serving the community and doing what it was meant to do.

5.    You reported that The Salvation Army’s International Headquarters sent a fact-finding team to Zimbabwe to examine the processing and use of donations to the hospital and you reported their findings. It is fundamentally important that any internal investigations be conducted from an objective, independent, third party approach. The only way to determine if this has in fact been the case The Salvation Army needs to release the report to the public in order for us to make our own informed decision. That is being accountable and transparent. However, if The Salvation Army has not conducted this investigation with a third party approach then the report is self-serving and unreliable.

6.    To say that there have not been problems with funds and resources being diverted and delayed is incorrect. It is a well-known fact. The Salvation Army is what it is because the people have built it, donated and sacrificed yet a few hierarchal administrators speak against the will of the people.

7.    HJ Retired SA officer – missionary HH 
November 11, 2012 at 11:21 pm 

I would assume that outside auditors have been asked to go to Howard in order to gain the confidence of donors. If allegations of misused funds are false then The Salvation Army will need to do all it can to gain back the confidence of supporters. When there are allegations of wrong doing in a company it is understood that outside auditors are used. Surely this also applies to Howard Hospital.

8.    EA 
November 13, 2012 at 11:08 am I believe that the SA tells the truth but only by a glaring act of omission. By saying that “There was no sign that goods or funds donated directly to The Salvation Army in Canada for use by the Howard Hospital were diverted from their original purpose.” they are being truthful. 
However, the majority of projects at Howard do not go through the SA in Canada. They were run (channeled) directly from donor to hospital, eg, USAID, Stephen Lewis, Global Fund. This is also the policy of the Zimbawean Association of Church Hospitals, an umbrella organization of 120 mission hospitals. 
These direct donor projects are where the discrepancies occur.
 An independent audit would certainly reveal this. 
When you know how to spin the press release, you can make the water look good on the surface even though it’s a cesspool underneath.

9.    LS 
November 17, 2012 at 5:21 pm Has anyone been following Doug MacLellan’s photo blog? Having been to the Howard four times in previous years, the Army has used his photos in the past in their periodicals for articles on the Howard. 
Doug went back to Zimbabwe last week, however, he was denied access to the Howard compound on November 15th, I wonder why? One would think TSA would be happy to have a photographer confirm their story that “• Media reports that the hospital is functioning at 10% are false.” 
Mr. MacLellan has posted photos on his internet blog at the following link http://dougmaclellan.tumblr.com/ 
Not allowed in the compound, this Canadian photographer posted a photo taken Nov. 15th outside the main entrance of the Howard. His comment says that normally it would be a scene of people crowding at the entrance waiting for admission. The scene is empty of people. That very day statistics coming out of the Howard by phone call to Canada, report the following staff estimates: of inpatients, and they are somewhat up: Male Ward: 3, Female Ward 8; Children’s Ward: 10; Maternity 12, total 33 – still far less than the normal average of inpatients, maybe a little over 10%, but not by much.

10.Could TSA kindly answer the following questions:
Why was this photographer (known to them) barred entrance to the Howard compound Nov. 15th?
 Why is TSA standing by as people die for needed surgery (according to reports coming out of Zimbabwe) while TSA has a surgeon on the ground but have removed him from his practice?
This is obviously a huge ethical question especially as TSA has forced a physician to break his oath by forcing him out of his practice without a suitable replacement in place.
 I agree with HJ’s comment above that TSA should have had an external investigation conducted given the seriousness of this situation. SA officers conducting an internal investigation obviously have a conflict of interest.


11. BN 
November 17, 2012 at 5:56 pm We mistakenly believed that if we gave people the correct information (told the truth about Howard Hospital and corruption) that it would lead to right action. We were proven wrong by The Salvation Army. Lying or telling the truth is a choice and we are left raging against the lies in this press release. I feel solidarity with the people of Cheweshe who are left to suffer without adequate health care, and anger towards The SA who are standing by and watching this happen.

12.“There are a few misconceptions here.  First, the corruption is very real.  Tens of thousands of dollars are, indeed, missing.  The only reason "no evidence was found" was that the books, both at THQ and the hospital, are a mess.” The reason they are in a mess is neither incompetance nor lack of time.  It is lack of committment to both accuracy and SA regulations.

13.Captain (Dr.) Paul Thistle was "wrong" in accepting direct aid to the hospital (even though all donation were recorded through the hospital books), but as government grants were worthless (rampant inflation) and donations were hijacked in full or part, not getting through THQ Zim to the hospital.

14.Commissioner Chigariro was not unlike other Commanders elsewhere, who could see the big picture more clearly than those in the trenches.“It’s reported that at one time THQ Zim was demanding 30% of donated funds.  THQ staff (including Commissioner Ward) were complaining it was being "run by children", young men and women trained by the Jesuits as AIDS counsellors.  Now (2013) it is the residence of three officer couples, $30,000 in debt for electricity alone, vehicles used as personal vehicles by the officers, water cut off, largely idle, no longer sponsoring children's camps.” 

15.Over the past several days, Dr. Lorraine Irvine, a retired doctor from Victoria, B.C., has been visiting Howard Hospital, or rather, trying to visit as THQ has done everything they can to stop her ("we don't want Canadians at the hospital").  She has taken donations for school fees for orphaned children at Howard Secondary and Nyachuru schools, but has been forbidden to pay them to the headmasters.  She has been ordered to give the donations to THQ Zim.  This is "right", but if she does, there is little likelihood the children will see any of it.  She may end up bringing the money back home to Canada. 

16.IHQ, for whatever reason, is complicit in this.  Two Norwegian nurses ran into the same problem earlier this year, and wrote to Commissioner Hodder then in the legal departement, who replied that he had sent their letter to the Africa section.  He may as well have thrown it in the wastebasket.  The nurses have said they will never give to the Salvation Army again, as have others who are hopping mad about this situation.  It amounts to stealing from orphaned children.

Findings - conclusion:

There is a need for better general governance in the Army in Zim. The Army puts far too much faith in the fairness and transparency of its senior staff. And it has no checks and procedures in place to deal with them when things go terribly wrong.

Further, the concept that a group of colleagues can be called together to constitute a board of directors demonstrates a dangerous lack of awareness on separation of power, responsibility and duties.  Decision-making and its consequences are far different in the 21st century than they were just a decade or two ago.

We live in a far more transparent world. The social media, governments/NGOs, support groups/agencies, and oversight agencies will not hesitate to challenge our credibility if the Army doesn't meet their ethical expectations and demands. And it’s naïve to believe that corruption or deceit in any form, witnessed by and committed against credible foreign individuals, institutions, governments and other SA bodies will be overlooked or dismissed simply on the basis that the ‘entire country is corrupt’. 

Sven Ljungholm
Former Officer
Liverpool