Dili (Timor-Leste), 8 June 2022 - Corruption in the healthcare sector is a malicious phenomenon that subverts the fundamental rule of law, the fair distribution of the national wealth, and the quality of medical services. The vulnerability of the health sector is due to a range of factors, including its complexity, the wide range of medical services and goods required throughout, the vast sums of money involved, and the large number of diverse people involved from the public and private sectors. The Covid-19 pandemic further worsened the corruption outlook for the health sector, through the ascendancy of emergency procurement regarding vaccines, personal protective equipment (PPE), medication, and other pandemic related services and goods.
To assist Timor-Leste in shoring up levels of health sector integrity, UNODC and the Anti-Corruption Commission (CAC) co-organized a Workshop on Corruption Risks in Health Sector Procurement, from 6-8 June 2022. The event brought together a diverse array of stakeholders, including senior hospital personnel, academic experts, civil society representatives, and officers from health, pharmaceutical, finance, procurement, anti-corruption, and prosecution agencies.
During the event, participants worked together to develop corruption risk assessments, identifying specific corruption-related vulnerabilities and risks in order to formulate ways to prevent misconduct and mitigate the consequences. Participants identified corruption risks, rated their likelihood, and assessed the potential impact of each corruption scheme, before going on to evaluate mitigating actions, controls, and processes.
As part of the workshop, participants drew on analytical principles laid out in State of Integrity, a UNODC guide on conducting corruption risk assessments in public organizations. As the guide emphasizes, eradicating corruption within an organization is not a single event, but instead requires a reiterative process of analysis, evaluation, and improvement. The corruption risk assessments are therefore intended to be a priority upon which agencies can cooperate on a rolling basis, to ensure that the health sector corruption is monitored, detected, addressed, and prevented.
This training was part of activities funded by the Ministry of Justice of Government of the Republic of Korea. Footage (where available) and written summaries of UNODC events are publicly available via our website.
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