Thursday, April 24, 2008


Die Tansanische Tageszeitung ThisDay, die wesentlich an der Aufdeckung der totbringenden internationalen Korruptions- und Beschaffungsskandale um die HIV/AIDS Labormaschinen (CD4 Counter) beteiligt ist, berichtet nun auch wieder über die Lutherische Kirche in Tanzania. Es wird eine Verbindung des Leids der sterbenden AIDS Kranken mit der Korruption und der Kriminalität in Kirche und Gesundheitsministerium vermutet.
Die in der Kolonialzeit gegründete Lutherische Kirche Tansanias wird seit Jahrzehnten führend von Missionswerken ("Northern Partners") mitfinanziert. Die Werke streiten nun offensichtlich jede Mitverantwortung für die falsche Verwendung der Spendengelder ab, obwohl die Vertreter der Gebermissionen, die über die Projekte mitentscheiden, wissen, dass seit Jahren keine zufriedenstellenden Berichte und Abrechungen gelegt werden.
Die Verbindung von unkontrolliertem Geld in den Händen gewalttätiger Macht und die resultierenden Menschenrechtsverletzungen werden immer wieder negiert. Das Geld wird übergeben und die Geber wissen viel zu oft nicht, was damit passiert.
Dass man dadurch oft zerstört und Strukturen mitfinanziert, die Menschrechte mit Füssen treten, das kann/will man nicht sehen.
Auf den Homepages der Werke und in deren Aussendungen finden sich oft die armen Waisenkinder, denen angeblich geholfen wird. Nachvollziehbare Belege für den Erfolg der Projekte werden nicht mitgeliefert und über die Diebstähle von Geldern durch Kirchenvertreter wird nicht berichtet.
Waisenkindern wird angeblich geholfen, aber Laboruntersuchungen, die ihr Leben retten können, werden ihnen durch die Kirche verweigert. Da helfen auch Schulungen von Transparency International nichts.
Der Grund dieser Aggressionen gegen die Armen scheint zu sein, dass PIUMA und andere aus der lokalen Gemeinschaft in Makete gegen Diebstähle in der Kirche protestiert haben. Dafür wurden sie vielfach mit Krankheit und Tod "bestraft".
Bis zur gewaltsamen Aussperrung des HIV/AIDS Behandlungs Teams in Bulongwa, haben die PARTEC Counter viele Leben (auch von Kindern) gerettet. Diese Geräte sind zur Zeit weltweit die einzigen, die auch jene Laborwerte liefern, die die Behandlung und Rettung von AIDS Kranken Kindern erleichtern. Dieser Erfolg wurde zerstört und die Missionswerke aus Übersee haben kein Wort der Solidarität gefunden, sondern sich im Gegenteil daran beteiligt Gerüchte und Lügen über die Kritiker in die Welt zu setzen, anstatt sachlich und zügig an der Aufklärung der Menschenrechtsverletzungen zu arbeiten.
Auch Teile der WHO, sowie das Tanzanische Gesundheitsministerium sind in die Beschaffungsskandale um die Bevorzugung der schlechteren und teureren Geräte der US amerikanischen Firma BD verwickelt.
Die Firma PARTEC aus Münster, die sich für angepasste, bezahlbare und funktionierende Technologien einsetzt, hat mittlerweile offizielle Beschwerde beim WHO Obudsmann eingelegt. Offensichtlich sollten die Laborgeräte vom Markt gedrängt werden, weil sie zu billig sind (vor allem die Kosten für die einzelnen Tests sind um ein vielfaches niedriger bei den Geräten, die in Bulongwa/Makete verwendet wurden).
Obwohl alle Missionswerke jede Mitschuld für die Menschenrechtsvergehen in Makete von sich weisen, ist es Tatsache, dass das LMC (Lutheran Missions Council in dem alle Missionswerke in Tansania vertreten sind) die Budgets für die Landeskirche (ELCT) vorgelegt bekommt und diese großteils aus Geldern der Missionen finanziert werden.
Sowohl Herrn Scheckenbach von der Mission Centrum EINE Welt in Bayern, dem Büro des Bayrischen Landesbischofs Friedrich (Kirchenrat Thomas Pietro Pieral), allen anderen Missionswerken, die im LMC vertreten sind, dem LMC Sekretär Lars Hofgren aus Schweden, dem Direktor des NMZ Klaus Schäfer, der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen, Transparency International, allen anderen im LMC vertretenen Werken aus Übersee und dem Lutherischen Weltbund in Genf, sind die Diebstähle von Spendengeldern (Es handelt sich hier um DIEBSTAHL und nicht um Korruption) und die fehlenden oder mangelhaften Bücher (nicht nur in Makete, das betrifft eine Vielzahl der Diözesen in Tanzania) seit langem (zum Teil seit Jahren) bekannt.
Auch die Korruption und die Probleme um die CD4 Counter wurden oft genug kommuniziert.
Statt Solidarität und Kooperation gab es falsche Anklagen und Lügenkampagnen (vor allem aus dem NMZ in Hamburg und der Bayrischen Kirche).
Trotz fehlender Bücher und fehlendem Nachweis für die richtige Verwendung der Gelder in Tansania, wurden immer wieder Mittel an eine Kirche überwiesen, die Menschenrechte mit Füssen tritt und in Makete am Tod von wahrscheinlich hunderten HIV/AIDS Patienten mitschuldig ist. Das ist nun auch durch eine Studie aus Schweden belegt, die zeigt, dass sich die Betreuung der Menschen in Bulongwa/Makete nach der Aussperrung des EAWM Programms wesentlich verschlechtert hat.
"Entwicklungshilfe" versickert seit Jahren in der Unprofessionalität und/oder in kriminellen Machenschaften in Tanzania.
Dass die Lutherische Kirche behauptet, gegen Korruption (der anderen in Politik und Gesellschaft) zu kämpfen (Tanzania führt zu Zeit einen viel beachteten Kampf gegen Korruption, vor allem unter der Führerschaft und ethischer Aufsicht des Präsidenten Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, dieser Kampf hat kürzlich auch zum Rücktritt des Premierministers und in der Folge der ganzen Regierung geführt) scheint der Gipfel einer Politk der Täuschung und des Pharisäertums von Christen zu sein.
Der Artikel ist vom letzten Montag.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

The essential contribution of the North Elbian Mission Centre in Hamburg to the embezzlement and the "art of stealing" in the Lutheran diocese in Makete (ELCT / SCD).

The German Missions Association NMZ http://www.nmz-mission.de, is involved in grand corruption and theft of donations in Tanzania through its former employee.

According to the former Secretary General of the SCD (South Central Diocese, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania) a NMZ fellow was assigned as head of the diocese financial department up to June 2004. She is said having worked on a well paid missionary contract for 4 years. The contract was obviously paid from resources designated to help the development of the poor rural Makete population.

According to an independent audit done by Moses and Company (the coversheets of the reports read: MOSES AB & COMPANY CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS IN PUBLIC PRACTICE, P.O. BOX 2412,TEL 2502182 MOBILE:0744-010057, MBEYA.) and ASHVIN SOLANKI AND COMPANY (CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS IN PUBLIC PRACTICE REGISTERED TAX & MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS P.O.BOX 1537 - TEL: 2702951 - IRINGA - TANZANIA) for the years 2003 and 2004 in the South Central Diocese of the ELCT http://www.elct.org/ apparently several 100,000 Euros mostly from church donations, as well as from government grants and Tanzanian tax payers money, disappeared from different accounts owned by the diocese.
For the periods before 2003 and after 2004 there is no reliable independent audit available. The several internal audits of ELCT headquarters are contradicting and indicating fraud and involvement of the ELCT auditdepartment.
Anyhow, the case of the South Central Diocese seems only to be a role case and worst case example for the lack of audit capacity within the whole of the ELCT.
No external or independent audits are done as a routine exercise in the whole of the ELCT.
Only half of the internal ELCT audits (obviously fraudulent and biased) are said to be given unqualified opinion.
Despite NMZ and other missions from Germany, co-financed the first independent audit of the South Central Diocese (not the whole ECLT - only one diocese! The only one!) for the years 2003 and 2004, the question remains open, why the NMZ in the aftermath apparently did not take strong consequences regarding the obvious implication of its own employee and organization in the frauds.
Under the supervison of the NMZ employee in Makete (SCD) structures were built or maintained, which do not comply with the constitution and laws of Tanzania and which facilitated the disposal of large sums of money leading to a complete standstill of nearly all projects in the Diocese and to the ongoing dying of the poor and the frustration of the honest.
The problems in the diocese are known for years to all the donor missions (including NMZ) and affect not only Bulongwa Lutheran Hospital as the most saddening case. After participating the uncovering of the frauds within ELCT and the involvment of the concerned overseas missions, the local Tanzanian clinic staff of the well working HIV/AIDS Clinic was kicked out under severe violation of their human rights in April 2006.
Later on no proper HIV / AIDS clinic was working and the death toll within the people living with HIV/AIDS increased. The Lutheran church and the financing missions are responsible for the death and suffering of several patients as they never spole out against the violations of their human rights through churhc representatives who still hold the stolen donor money up to this date.

The honest who are fighting corruption and for the rights of their community were and are still punished by a criminal international church network.

Nobody from the local bishop’s level up to the Lutheran World Federation reacted in a way supporting laws and moral and none of them defend the lives of the dying and betrayed people in Makete. The financial irregularities in the years 2003/2004 were repeatedly brought to attention to the current director and to the "Africa-expert" of the NMZ from several sides - including statements from a Tanzanian accountant (CPA - Certified Public Accountant) . They never found it worth to substantially react to the Tanzanian nationals who approached them and asked for clarifications. They let their relatives die.

There was no reaction in the sense of firm protection of the local population who were suffering under the conmen in the cloth.

The whereabouts of the funds donated by well meaning church goers in Europe, it is still totally unclear, and the public was not given any background information by church or mission representatives! Again a violation of human rights by NMZ, ELCT and other Missions by withhelding information and deniying the public its rights to be informed. The matter was declared an internal church matter.

The current Director of NMZ and the "Africa-expert" are holding their responsible posts at NMZ since a time after the basic decisions were made, which facilitated and empowered ("financed") the corrupt environment in Makete. That makes one suspiciously questioning why the Director of NMZ, who is scientifically dealing with the issue of corruption in the church's development cooperation and his "Africa expert" do not force the matter of fraud, human rights abuses and death of innocent patients to an independent juridical forum in Germany and Tanzania.

Through lack of transparency and withholding the information about the exact amount of money flowing at which particular time to which particular account and for which purpose, they actively deny Africans their rights for a strong and fair legal system, transparency and the chance of redress and find money stolen by church officials from the poor and the taxpayers of Tanzania.

The "Africa-expert" of NMZ is connected to Makete since long and knows the problematic situation since years, especially through his previous project assessment visits. These visits were obviously another waste of donor money serving to protect criminals rather than openly and transparently advocating for justice.

Critics of the NMZ policy and the policy of other overseas missions – were for a long time neglected (“we cannot read all these mails”).

Later, under the current leadership of NMZ the messengers and critics were witchhunted, the issue was personalized and the people who spoke about the issue were designated as liars and their "disrespectful language" was declared to be the problem.
Neither in the ELCT leadership, nor in the Lutheran Mission Counsel of Tanzania, nor in the Lutheran World Federation, the fate of the betrayed and dying poor were worth a single word of regret or any move to secure the oppressed poor their lives and basic human rights.

At a conference about corruption in the church's development cooperation held in Hamburg late 2007 under the participation of Transparency International, a picture of the situation of corruption in Tanzania was given, which had little to do with facts, the reality and situation on the ground. The problem of human rights violations by corrupt thieves - empowered through the stolen ressources - in the African churches was completely neglected and the share of NMZ and other financing missions, who are sustaining corrupt structures, which leads to frustration of the poor was not made to an issue.

The long standing resistance against transparent and legal ways to actively deal with the matter, the resitance to actively implement laws and constitutions was left out in any discussion.

(During the last 2 decades, several such "no-particular-outcome-meetings-about-corruption" of mission representatives from all over Germany were organized. The problem of corruption in their own projects which is increasing the weight on the back of the poor by the ongoing financial support of the corrupt elites was not an issue, the meetings ended up in being mere talking shops while the uninformed poor went on suffering.)

NMZ - experts and aid workers and "groups" were and are providing donor funded assistance which is undermining the fabric of the african society and its legal traditional and modern systems.

The well documented fact that church organizations and missions are carelessly supporting corruption and undemocratic colonial power shifts should one make raise an eyebrow: The bible teaches us that we should be better than the law.

Corrupt and criminal structures are kept alive by churches through their development assistance resources and through intermediate agencies, like the LMC (Lutheran Mission Counsel of Tanzania, a non registered informal body, where foreign mission and their voting representatives and ELCT bishops are distributing hundreds of millions of TSH every year to - in some case criminal - church leaders under nearly total exclusion of Tanzanian and European public and without any proper audit or documentation or clear information about "irregularities").
Donor missions continue to support structures like the ones built up under the leadership of former Makete Bishop Manyiewa and NMZ experts.

Tanzanians were, inter alia, denied the right for good health care, because their HIV / AIDS clinic was violently closed and never returned to the same quality after it was reopened.

More than ever, I believe that the responsible mission secretaries in Europe must resign and the financial accounts in Europe and Tanzania must be fully disclosed and those responsible for thefts and embezzlements in Tanzania and in other countries must be held accountable for damaging societies in developing countries through money given by well meaning small donors who thought to help the poor and achieved the opposite.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Schlagzeile heute in Rai auf der Titelseite

"Nun verteidigt der Gesundheitsminister seinen eigenen Mist"

Über Korruption und HIV/AIDS (CD4 Counter und HIV Tetsts)

Rai

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, der spätere Präsident von Tanzania bekommt von Dr. Volker Ost von PARTEC einen CD4 counter erklärt. (V.l.n.r.: Ich, Kikwete, Ost)


Die CD4 Counter von PARTEC waren bis zum Hinauswurf aus der Klinik sehr erfolgreich in Bulongwa im Einsatz.

Diese Maschinen wurden durch den Gesundheitsminister, der sich nach dem gewaltsamen Schluss der Klinik hinter das korrupte Krankenhaus und den später abgewählten Bischof gestellt hatte, durch ein Gerät der Firma Becton Dickinson ersetzt. Diese Geräte sind im Vergleich mit den Countern aus Deutschland die mit Sicherheit die schlechteren und teureren Produkte aus den USA.

CD4 Counter sind Laborgeräte, die man braucht, um den Zustand des Immunsystems zu bestimmen, damit man eine gute lebensrettende HIV/AIDS Therapie durchführen kann.

Der Counter aus den USA kann keine Werte für Kinder erheben. Dass er unter den schwierigen Bedingungen in Bulongwa oft nicht funktioniert, das hat PIUMA dokumentiert.

Laut einem Mail, das ich heute bekommen habe, sagt ein BD Vertreter in Nairobi nun angeblich folgendes:

"...He strongly condemned their Asian agent there for being a very dangerous crook, adding that the regional office for BD fears to stop the agency due to unknown reaction from this tycoon. He claims that BD has failed to tame Mr Rajan and hoped that the Cyflow saga will make the law catch up with him in order to arm themselves with good reason for cancellation of agency!"





http://www.thisday.co.tz/News/3734.html

"Finn’s Facts:

PCCB, DCI should comb Ministry of Health and flush out criminal elements

FINNIGAN WA SIMBEYE

DAR ES SALAAM

ONCE again in a space of less than six months, the corruption jinx at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has raised its ugly head again. This time around the controversy surrounds a three-man probe team report which was presented to the media by the Minister, Professor David Homeli Mwakyusa. The controversial report which has taken the probe team over a year to complete against a scheduled time of three and a half months, was aimed at finding out why German made Cyflow CD4 counter and South Korean made SD Bioline HIV rapid test kit were being barred from being used in the country despite the fact that the medical equipment had been locally evaluated and approved. Prof. Mwakyusa stirred a controversial media debate when he said that Cyflow was actually banned for use in the country following poor evaluation results at the then Muhimbili University College for Health Sciences (now Muhimbili University for Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in 2004. Prof. Mwakyusa, one of the country’s most coveted medical doctors, went on to assert in a statement that Cyflow has even failed to impress the World Health Organization (WHO) which doesn’t recommend use of the machine because of technical deficiencies. The minister further contended that the equipment is never used in any developed country! German manufacturers of Cyflow, Partec Essential Healthcare reacted angrily to Prof. Mwakyusa’s statement and the company has since produced enough evidence to prove its case that the machine is popularly used in developed and developing world, including WHO sponsored projects and that its evaluation at MUCHS was sabotaged. For over a decade now, a network of criminal personalities at MoHSW and its affiliates which include Medical Stores Department, MUHAS and National Aids Control Programme, among others, have forged a satanic relationship with Dar es Salaam-based businessman, Bharat Rajani of Biocare Health Products Limited who supplied Becton Dickinson made FacsCount CD4 Counter and Capillus while shutting out all other competitors as if Tanzania is a centralized command economy. Prof. Mwakyusa who seemed to have been misinformed thoroughly by his two peers in the profession, Professor Philip Hiza and Raphael Lema who had all along quarreled with the rapporteur of the probe team report, Dr Juma Madati, whose commitment to deliver on the project can be proven by his taking of a two months unpaid leave in 2006, went on to defend his ministry’s continued purchasing of Capillus HIV rapid test kit which was formally phased out after a decade of domination, last year. He said Capillus is scientifically effective and the country has a reliable cold chain to ferry the Irish made kit which has never undergone compulsory evaluation as required by regulations governing importation of foreign technologies into the country, upcountry where the kit is actually designed to be used as hospitals and health centres are not available. Former Permanent Secretary at MoHSW, Hilda Gondwe, issued a statement in November 2006, which categorically stated that Capillus was not effective for use in the country because of its strict cold chain requirement. Gondwe was later removed from the ministry probably because she stepped on high profile public office holders’ interests because just recently Medical Stores Department ordered a huge consignment of Capillus valued at over 4bn/-. There is a serious problem of accountability and professional ethics among senior technical officials at this sensitive ministry where former Permanent Secretary Mariam Mwaffisi was so frustrated that she said in public that some correspondence addressed to her was actually hijacked and replied without her knowledge. This suspect network of highly qualified Tanzania medical doctors, pharmacists and other related professions which is lubricated by donor money paid to Rajan’s company which also almost monopolizes all medical supplies to the MoHSW, must be probed by law enforcing agencies, Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau and Directorate of Criminal Investigations. This criminal cartel is as dangerous as that which was recently dismantled by President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete at the Bank of Tanzania by the sacking of former governor Daudi Ballali. The problem at MoHSW and its affiliates, is not Prof. Mwakyusa or Wilson Mukama the current PS and indeed not Dr. Deo Mtasiwa, the chief medical officer, but key technical personnel who have overstayed at the ministry and established an empire of evil supported by some donors whose interest is to show on books that they gave Tanzania $4m in support of HIV and AIDS activities but the reality is that their companies are dumping obsolete technologies in our country."
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Die Missionswerke NMZ Hamburg, Mission Centrum EINE Welt in Bayern und KPS, sowie anderer Werke, wurden im Rahmen des kriminellen Hinauswurfs des CTC Teams aus Bulongwa, der von einer korrupten Kirche organisiert und/oder stillschweigend toleriert wurde, darüber informiert, dass durch die Stillegung der CD4 counter (die auch von Korruptiuonsgeschichten umrankt sind) Patienten (inklusive Kinder zu Schaden kommen würden). Es gab dazu keine Reaktionen , auch deshalb:

Im Übrigen bin ich der Meinung, dass die für Korruptionsfinazierung und fehlende Rechenschaftslegung zuständigen Missionssekretäre in Europa zurücktreten müssen und die Finanzgebarung auch der kirchlichen Entwicklungshilfe in Europa und Tansania vollkommen offengelegt werden muss und für Diebstähle, Korruption und Spendengeldermisswirtschaft Verantwortliche in Tansania und in anderen Ländern zur Rechenschaft gezogen werden müssen.

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