Whistleblowers have a vital role safeguarding emergency response programmes during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Such programmes typically combine large financial flows with lower anti-corruption controls, to enable a swifter response. But this also undermines transparency and accountability, and makes it crucial for people to speak up safely and expose wrongdoing. In 2022, an emergency health worker recruited by Zambia’s Ministry of Health for a COVID-19 recovery project made an anonymous report to Transparency International Zambia’s ALAC. The whistleblower suspected corruption, since the ministry had not fully paid medical staff, even though it had received funding for the project from the World Bank.
To learn more, Transparency International Zambia hosted a meeting for medics from the project, who described underpayment for their first contract and non-receipt of statutory national pension and health insurance contributions. Also lacking payslips, they could not verify the amounts due and claim shortfalls. To quantify the problem, the chapter ran an online survey, with 97 responses – 17 per cent of emergency health workers – and submitted a report to the Ministry of Health, the National Public Health Institute and the World Bank. In response, the institute conducted a detailed staff audit and is now working to resolve the pay issues. Thanks to their anonymous colleague blowing the whistle, health workers should soon receive full pay for the lifesaving care they deliver.
