Getting roughed up in the bunch

Well, Malcolm thinks he could have been in prison!!!

On Wednesday he discovered that the claim against the Hospital for non-payment of NSSF (a bit like National Insurance) was going to be reviewed by the Magistrate on Thursday. NSSF are the hospital’s largest creditor of over Tsh 100 million (about £45,000) going back to 2006. The Hospital was represented by the Diocese Finance Officer, Mr Chizelema and Malcolm went as well to show the Hospital’s concern.

The good news is that the claim currently put to court by NSSF was for about Tsh 15 million for 3 months to February 2007 – far less than Malcolm was anticipating but still more than he has available in the Hospital accounts. The bad news is that the Magistrate was clearly becoming annoyed by the Hospital and was ready to issue his sentence which could be a hefty fine and/or prison sentence. However, he will formally hear the evidence on 30th September and then issue his verdict so we have a few weeks to see what we can negotiate with NSSF. If we can sort out the Tsh 15 million we then have to sort out the rest.

Irene is quite excited – she’s heard that the prisoners make some attractive mats for sale to the public and can’t wait to buy one of Malcolm’s!!!!

Malcolm then had an informal discussion with a Tax Inspector to find out what an appropriate response would be to last weeks assessment of Tsh 55 million of unpaid PAYE. Fortunately he confirmed that the best approach would be to write to the Commissioner setting out the Hospital’s position and ask that some, if not all, the debt could be written off – it may not be successful but its worth a try – anyone any good at writing begging letters?

Following that Malcolm visited the dentist to have a bridge replaced again – what a day!!!

Irene’s week has been comparably quiet and relaxing. On Saturday she visited Dodoma to get some desperately needed cash out of an ATM machine. She also went to a cathedral service to say goodbye to a German pharmacist who had worked in Dodoma for several years, Irene ended up singing in the choir. Whilst there she had a quick word with the Bishop who said he knew what we would be doing next………

At work she has been making curtains and table cloths for the offices. This has worked out nicely for Malcolm who has reorganised his office to achieve the ‘no mess on the desk’ look at the end of the day – something he surprisingly achieved in England in the past couple of years – however it does carry the risk that people think you have no work to do.

On Friday Irene was so bored that she even came to help fill in some tax returns for employees.

Two of the chickens have moved on; one deliberately and one unfortunately.

For the past 2 weeks there has been a bit of a battle between a hen (known as hen A) who has wanted to save and sit on eggs, and the others who we believe want to eat the eggs. It now seems that our temporary glut of eggs was because hen A was successful in saving them. However, more recently the others, led by hen B, have been attacking hen A (heavy pecking to the face) to try to get the eggs.

To save bloodshed – and because of a soft spot for a hens mothering instincts, Irene managed to arrange a separate cage for hen A. (Which has meant no eggs as the others are now free to eat their own). She also decided to save the cockerel this week and cull hen B – a sort of retribution.
Unfortunately, soon after culling hen B, hen A passed away.

A tragic tale of love and war.

(Postscript - update from hen B to her fans. Rumours of her death are premature, though she is not feeling well and was hiding)

What new experiences will next week bring:
- the planned visit to Mheza Hospital is now scheduled for Thursday or Friday,

- still waiting (yet again) for more shelving so Irene can complete filing the medical Records
- Malcolm to report to the Hospital Managers on the result of the Magistrates hearing and the need to reach some agreement with NSSF
- Prepare to meet the Bishop to discuss whether to return next year, (or whether we will be invited to return)

Jostling for position

Fresh meat – there’s nothing like it!!! Although most of the time we seem to eat meat of dubious source and quality – including home grown but scrawny chickens, when we do find some fresh meat it is excellent.

Last weekend we heard that a hospital neighbour was killing one of pigs and selling the meat for about £1 a kilo. So we ordered 4 kilos and picked it up on Saturday – still warm from the carcase. And it was good news for the chickens – it means we didn’t pick one of those this week.

Since we killed a chicken 10 days ago the rest seem to have got the message. We suddenly seem to be inundated with eggs and Irene even made a 10 egg omelette this week to reduce the stock – and we gave some away to neighbours. One of the hens has also became very broody, sitting on the eggs and fighting anyway who tries to remove them. Irene has marked a couple and we will try to leave them with her to see what happens.

Last Saturday we visited Gordon and Rae, a couple of retired Aussies, working at the Amani Development Organisation project in a neighbouring village. The agricultural project started after one of the recent famines, to help train villagers in good practices for growing food. Gordon is an expert on growing trees, and Rae is teaching English at the school. The setting of the small holding (growing vegetables, grapes etc) is very pretty and it was the first time Irene has seen monkeys in Tanzania. However, it is remote so they do not have a permanent electricity supply, relying on a small petrol generator for power and a charcoal stove for cooking.

Our first service in the new St Andrews building was very good and felt very spacious. It still looks like a building site as more funds are required to complete the remaining 20% of the roof and put in doors and windows – fortunately there is no rain in Mvumi for most of the year – but when it rains in December / February it will be very heavy. We understand it will take several years for the congregation to raise the money to complete the building.

We are beginning to count down for our return to England as there are only 9 weeks to go, 2 of which will be a holiday. The financial management of the Hospital continues to be difficult with not enough money to pay costs. Budgetary control is meaningless when you are waiting for income to pay a backlog of essential invoices. It is now clear how much PAYE is owed to the Revenues Authority and Malcolm is ensuring that, for the first time, all allowances are properly taxed. He is also chasing staff for the payment of agreed charges for the use of Hospital water supplied to their homes.

He is finding it frustrating that there is no clarity to the correct solutions to the financial problems. It is possible that the Government will pay most or all staff when the Hospital becomes a Designated District Hospital which means it would be unnecessary to lay off staff now. However, DDH should have happened in July but has been postponed and progress is slow. Alternatively, if the financial position does not change then the Hospital is overspending by a significant amount, not paying PAYE, National Insurance and other suppliers and has a rapidly worsening position.

He has worked for some Councils with financial problems – but nothing like this. His approach is to try and involve the senior management in the decisions about who to pay – but it also means putting pressure on some of the departments to pay their way and release funds from their bank accounts which should be used to pay salaries, electricity and other hospital costs. Again, neither of these approaches is popular.

And to cap it all he was eating a coconut – and his bridge came out again – back to the dentist!!!!
Irene has had an easy week as the medical filing has come to a halt until more shelving is provided. She has enjoyed the rest but will look for something else to do soon if the shelving continues to prove elusive.

So, for next week:
- We wait to hear if the planned visit to Mheza Hospital to find out about becoming a DDH will proceed, or be postponed for a fourth time
- still waiting (yet again) for more shelving so Irene can complete filing the medical Records
- possibly meet the Bishop to discuss whether to return next year, (or whether we will be invited to return)

....but do the tough keep going?

We had a relaxing weekend in Dodoma. On the Sunday we attended our first English church service for over 3 months at the cathedral. We wouldn’t normally get excited about a cathedral service in England and the service, though undertandable, did lack some of the excitement of the Swahili services at Mita. Still, we recognised most of the choruses and enjoyed the singing.

We also met Peter and Alison Roots for lunch. We last saw them in Chesham when they had returned to the UK for 6 months. They have just returned to Dodoma to work.

We had a surprise in store at the guest house. There was a party of 9 from Britain who were leading a children’s Holiday Club nearby. One of them, Nicky Biddal, appeared familiar, but it was only at the cathedral service when we introduced ourselves to the congregation that she realised where we had met before. We think we last met almost 20 years ago when we moved to Clacton and we went a few times to the Baptist church where her husband was the minister. I was amazed that as a pastor’s wife, who must have met thousand’s of people, she could recognise us after such a long period!! I have trouble recognising myself in the mirror when I get up each morning.

Back to Mvumi on Monday for a fairly routine week.

For Malcolm the ‘highlights’ at work were:
- getting enough money to pay the July payroll
- receiving the detailed working papers from the Revenues Authority showing how the Tsh 55 million assessment has been calculated. He’s now working on this to prepare a briefing paper for Management Committee and the Bishop. The formal assessment should be served next week and the Hospital will then have 30 days to pay or agree instalments
- issuing invoices to about 30 people who should have paid tsh 6000 per month (£2.50) for water but havn’t done so for many years. Although it doesn’t sound a lot for many it will be any enormous sum so there will probably need to be some sensitive negotiations. For the Hospital it is important to receive as much as possible to help with the financial problems

A key issue for the future financial well-being of the Hospital is being made a Dedicated District Hospital. It is still unclear about how much of the costs will then be paid by Government. It was planned to visit a similar Hospital near Dar es Salaam next Monday to find out their experiences when they became DDH. Unfortunately the visit has been postponed for a second time. The Hospital should have become DDH at the start of July - every months delay increases the Hospital’s debt by more than Tsh 10,000,000 progress is critical.

For Irene the ‘highlight’ at work was finishing the medical stock take and getting it inputted onto a spread sheet.

Grace and Esther – don’t read this bit!!!!
It’s been a landmark week for the chickens. With only 10 weeks before we leave we need to plan a reduction of stock. We felt justified as the 6 hens had only laid 3 eggs in the last fortnight and therefore the cost of feeding them is uneconomic. So on Wednesday Mama Asante and Irene selected one to feed us for a change. The strange thing is by the end of the day we found the remaining 5 hens had laid 5 eggs – have they realised what is going on and trying to prove that they are earning their keep???? Now it’s the cockerel who could be in trouble!!!

Although our hens are kept in an enclosed hen house there are other chickens that roam free. A couple of them also almost found themselves in the cooking pot when Irene noticed them in our garden eating some lettuce seedlings that she had planted. By the time she had scared them off, most of the seedlings had gone.

So, what are we looking forward to next week:
- a visit to a neighbouring village tomorrow to see some mission work there
- our first service in St Andrews new church building
- Irene still waiting (again) for more shelving so she can complete filing the medical Records

... and tougher!!

I’m writing this in the luxury of the MAF Guesthouse in Dodoma. Today is a bank holiday in Tanzania (nane nane (8th of the 8th) or ‘farmers’ day’ so we are taking along weekend break. Irene has her swimming pool – we have free access to the Internet and a TV!!!! Hot shower and double bed don’t seem such a luxury now as we gained these in Mvumi a couple of weeks ago. Our one problem is we can’t download photos to the lap top as Malcolm (typical) forgot the cable, so these are limited at present – sorry!!!

Last time we came here Irene had a bad back which restricted us a bit. Not a problem at present, though we don’t expect to do a lot. This time we hope to get to the cathedral on Sunday for our first English service for over 3 months. One that we can understand!!! As is the usual Tanzanian custom part way through we will be expected to stand up and introduce ourselves – it will be strange not to be doing so in pigeon Swahili!!!!

In the past week we have had a guest in our house – John Clark, headmaster at the Secondary school. And he does work long hours. He gets up early to be at the school by 7am to make sure the boarders get up. He gets lots of visitors from England (he stayed with us as the headmaster and family of Harrow school was visiting for the week so they had the use of John’s house) and seems to be involved in some sort of entertainment most nights – so we hardly saw him except whn he got home about 10 pm to go straight to bed.

One of the parties visiting until last weekend were pupils from Dr Challoner’s Girls school, Little Chalfont – near to where we lived in Chesham – it’s a small world.

Malcolm has probably become one of the less popular people at the Hospital, for 2 reasons:
1. He doesn’t have enough money to pay July salaries – let alone PAYE and the equivalent of National Insurance. The approach he’s adopted, right or wrong, is to present the problem to the Management Committee asking for either:
- their monthly contribution, or
- instructions on which staff to pay as it is impossible (without taking funds held in trust for donors, drugs or the Government) to pay them all
Not surprisingly the departments concerned don’t like it. However, Malcolm hasn’t come here to be popular but to try and sort out some of the Financial problems.

2. The second issue is the audit report from the Tax Inspectors. They discovered about Tsh 50 million of unpaid tax. About half of this was known (the Hospital had deducted PAYE from salaries, but for about 18 months hadn’t passed it to the Revenues Authorities as they needed it to pay salaries (in part because the departments hadn’t been paying their contributions – see 1 above)). About half is because the hospital had been paying their staff significant allowances without deducting tax. Malcolm is implementing the main recommendations of the Revenues Authorities (that tax should be properly deducted from all allowances, and these should be recorded on the central payroll system) which has upset many people who seem to blame the management Task Force for calling in the auditors – which we didn’t.

Next week Malcolm will probably pick up the formal Tax assessment from the Inspectors. The Hospital then has 30 days to pay the assessment or agree instalments – neither of which there is any hope of doing unless the departments get real about their responsibilities and the hospital sorts out its funding problems, probably when it should get more grant as a Designated District Hospital. However progress on this is slow.

Irene has had a busy, but less controversial week. She completed the first stock-take of the medical stores for several years and is now compiling a list of items held. Managing the stores has not been helped by the lack of shelving which has meant that boxes have been piled together making it difficult for the staff to know what’s there, let alone locate it. One ‘pile’ was from a shipment received a couple of years ago – when checked there were many items that the hospital needed and fortunately most were still in date (although we noticed one bottle of iodine for scrubs which was dated ‘use by 1999’ so would have been several years out of date even when sent). Irene also received a new shipment of items from abroad. Many of the items were needed by the hospital – unfortunately some had been put in, with the best of intentions, to fill the container but which are no use to the Hospital. Fortunately the local coordinator is aware of the problem and looking at ways of preventing the waste in future.

Outside the Hospital we did have one scare. When we got back from church last Sunday Squashy, the Walton’s dog we are looking after, had escaped. Having searched the area we assumed he would return for food. When he still hadn’t come back the following morning we decided we ought to let Simon know. Having texted him, within 10 minutes our gardener / chicken carer, Steven, found Squashy in the Hospital. Phew!!! We were beginning to think someone may have taken him though he is well known in Mvumi being the largest, most ferocious looking (but friendly) dog around.

He might have simply guessed what was going to happen on Tuesday. Simon's last instruction was that Irene should give him an anti-flea injection in the neck - no trouble for a doctor!! The VSO doctor Corrie was away on safari. Malcolm was nowhere to be found (what a surprise)!!! Irene's not squeamish but even she found actually giving an injection difficult - she was more distressed than Squashy (who in the end seemed not bothered at all. Hopefully that will kill the fleas. Irene has had problems as they seem to like her, and bite to bury themselves in her skin. Tasty!

The other event was that ‘fundis’ completed as much as they could of the roof of the new St Andrew’s church on Friday – the church could only afford the materials to have about 80% done. About £400 is needed to complete the roof before moving on to doors and windows.

So, what happens next week:
- after our R&R at the Dodoma MAF Guest House we return to Mvumi
- Malcolm may be going to Tanga with the District Council to visit another Hospital that has recently become a Designated District Hospital
- Still need to pay July salaries, when the money is found
- Pick up the formal tax Inspection report and prepare a summary for the Bishop and Management Committee
- Irene still waiting for more shelving so she can complete filing the medical Records

The going gets tougher

Oh the bliss of having a hot shower in the morning!

Moving into Simon's and Laura's house has been well worth the effort, we even have a double bed again (although when Irene wakes up in the middle of the night with no sheet she wonders if this is an advantage or not!) It is quite fun too having chickens and ducks in the back garden and, until the end of the week, a cow mooing gently in the front. We are acting as Foster parents for the ducks until their owner, the chaplain, returns from holiday – we often thought we were a bit quackers!

However, the cockerel who thinks that dawn is 3.30 in the morning and crows accordingly, is first in line for the cooking pot as far as Irene is concerned. His stay of execution has been because she doesn’t know if chickens continue to lay if a cockerel is not present and fresh eggs are very useful.

We are also temporarily looking after Squashy, the large Alsatian who is meant to be a guard dog but is as soft as a brush. Malcolm ‘enjoys’ taking him for walks in the evening, the local children are getting less afraid of the dog and he often has a bunch of them following him around.

Malcolm does feel a bit guilty about last weekend though. At one point some girls came round and were a bit annoying with Irene. A bit later some boys came into the garden shouting as if to make mischief and Malcolm told them to go away (‘Clear orf’). A bit later when he realised someone had taken 3 plastic bottles of water from the garden, which were being sterilised by the sun, did he realise the boy were shouting ‘ Maji, Maji’ or ‘ Water, water’ and they may have been warning that someone was taking them.

A couple of hens disappeared before we moved into the Walton’s (now Crawford’s) house. When Malcolm mentioned this to someone, ‘magically’, that night, one returned.
On Sunday St Andrews said goodbye to another key member, the Revd Meshack Sudayi. who has been temporary pastor for the last year. Although he leaves the church he remains chaplain to the Hospital.

Work continues much the same as usual. Irene spent an enjoyable day with the chaplain on Tuesday handing out clothes to the patients in the wards. She particularly enjoyed visiting the labour wards and seeing all the new born babies. There are lots of clothes for babies but very little for adults who probably are in more need. In the men’s ward they were incredibly grateful for just a pyjama top or hat and every one tried on their new clothes immediately. She is still waiting for the ‘fundis’ to put more shelves in the filing office so she can finally finish off the medical records.

On Friday she had extra exercise chasing an escaped chicken around the garden. Fortunately it wanted to return to its coop as much as she wanted it too, and eventually she managed to capture it with a little help from Squashy. It was also the day that the cow and Friday, the donkey were moved to their new home about 120km away. (There goes our source of cheap, fresh milk). This meant getting them onto the back of the hospital lorry along with their cow shed. This was quite a feat as the donkey in particular didn’t want to go and even Malcolm had to put the video camera down to give a hand.

Malcolm has had another tiring week trying to meet all the financial demands of the hospital. The main events were:

- a Management Committee meeting chaired by the Diocese General Secretary. This lasted for over 4 hours, and was the first time several members were told of the creation of a Director of Schools post and the redundancy of about 20 support staff. Malcolm also circulated a paper reporting that it would not be possible to pay July salaries unless and until the schools and eye department paid their monthly contributions, and some of the arrears in contributions that they hadn’t paid over the past 2 years. Most of the discussion was in Swahili, but it was clear that the department heads did not like being reminded that with the independence of managing their own bank accounts comes the responsibility of paying the agreed contributions to the hospital to pay for their staff

- a meeting with the District Medical Officer to discuss the financial effect of becoming a Designated District Hospital. It is clear the District Council doesn’t have all the information and it is likely that in a few weeks Malcolm and District Council staff will be going on a fact finding visit to a Hospital north of Dar es Salaam which has gone through a similar process

- on Thursday the Tax Inspectors reported their assessment – it was largely as Malcolm expected though still a big problem. The Task force knew the Hospital had not paid to the Revenues Authority about Tsh 25 million of PAYE deducted from staff – the Inspectors found another Tsh 20 million or so that should have been deducted from allowances but hadn’t been. This meant a total debt including penalties of Tsh 56 million. The problem is that they will now issue their report and the Hospital will be required to take action to clear the debt – when it already has other debts of about Tsh 200 million – that means total debts of about £100,000 or 40% of the Hospitals annual expenditure. It would be nice to have some money rather than empty bank accounts and debts!!!!

So, what happens next week:
- we prepare to go for R&R at the Dodoma MAF Guest House at the weekend
- Irene returns to the stores to do a stock-take
- Malcolm looks for money to pay July Salaries, and maybe will have to ask Management Committee what they want to do – i.e. which staff not to pay!!!!
- The Tax Inspectors issue their formal report