Mission

Promote mutual collaboration, co-operation and assistance relating to addressing key vulnerabilities identified in the health sector in South Africa

Goals

The Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum (HSACF) aims to:

• Significantly reduce fraud and corruption in the health sector through a multi-sector collaboration approach, which will ensure speedy investigations and turnaround times of fraud, corruption and maladministration that have been reported to the Forum.

• Criminally prosecute the perpetrators of fraud and corruption in the health sector

• Ensure that funds that have been lost by the State through fraud and corrupt activities are also recovered through civil litigation process.

Stakeholders

There are 15 signatories to the HSACF Terms of Reference including law enforcement agencies, regulators, and other government agencies, the Health Funders Association and other civil society organisations.

The Terms of Reference set out the rules of engagement in terms of how stakeholders will collaborate to ensure efficient resolution of health sector related fraud and corruption.

Activities

Since its inception in 2018, the HSACF has convened three meetings where performance reports were reviewed. Through this collaboration, HSACF has received quite a number of fraud and corruption allegations that has culminated in formal investigations in the health sector by way of Presidential Proclamations. Amongst them, include allegations of fraud, maladministration and corruption in the following Entities:
a) Council for Medical Schemes,
b) Health Professions Council of South Africa,
c) National Health Laboratory Services,

A proclamation is awaited in respect of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority. Matters under assessment include allegations relating to healthcare risk waste management, the theft of ARVs, the irregular award of a catering contract, irregular appointments, maladministration in relation to the affairs of a medical scheme, lack of management and controls in respect of hospital stock and irregularities at government mortuaries which potentially has an impact on prosecutions.

There is also collaboration with various Provincial Health Departments to deal with Medico-Legal claims fraud and corruption. This relates to collusion between attorneys, touts, nurses, doctors and specialist in various hospitals across the country to defraud the State through lodging fictitious claims purporting doctor negligence in public hospitals. This collaboration has culminated in the arrest of an Eastern Cape attorney (Nonxuba) on three counts of fraud to the value of R45 million. It has now been established that the Medico-Legal claim is not only limited to few Provinces but it is a National problem. Therefore, an assessment is being conducted to determine whether there are sufficient statutory grounds for the President to issue a Proclamation to mandate the SIU to investigate all Medico-Legal claims matters on a National Level.