Abu Bakr Zakhamah

President of the University of Private Clinics Abu Bakr Zakhamah announced that the duty of the taxpayer is indisputable and that all Tunisians, including doctors, should sacrifice to save Tunisia. He believes that the only problem is their feeling that they are a target sector.
 
Zakhamah explained, in interview with Arabs Today, that private health institutions can not evade paying taxes. "Each institution is based on a legal way and a financial and administrative system in which it is difficult to commit the crime of tax evasion," he added.

Zakhamah stresses that the private health institutions are a national gain and has a large operational capacity, calling for an end to the dramatic statements that undermine the reputation of the private health sector, which he considers a sensitive sector that contributes to the development of the national economy and the development of health services.

Regarding the points that the University of Private Health Clinics objected to the draft law on finance, it was mainly the need for physicians to declare all their income from the clinic.
 
Zakhamah added that the doctor sometimes receives direct fees from the patient, and believes that owners of clinics can not play the role of observer on the doctor, which affects the relationship between the parties, stressing that all the money that enter the doctor through the management of the clinic is subject to automatic and mandatory system to declare income.

Abu Bakr Zakhamah sees that Tunisia is experiencing financial and economic difficulties affected private institutions, adding that they can not provide any increases in this situation. He said that the private health sector has been experiencing many difficulties for years, explaining that it is linked to the Libyan situation, which in turn has caused successive crises, which have contributed to the reluctance of Libyan patients to treat in Tunisia because of the unstable political situation in their country.

He stressed that the sanatoriums have been managing their financial issues through borrowing from banks, which in turn sometimes refuse to give loans. "This is in addition to the deteriorating situation of the social funds and the social security fund, which is unable to pay its debts to health institutions," he added.

He praised the Algerian market, which he considered a starting point for the export of health services towards African countries, stressing their movement in this direction through the presence of a large demand of the Tunisian health services in Algeria.

Zakhamah added that other African countries such as Mauritania, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Chad, Niger and Sudan, expressed its willingness to deal with the Tunisian competencies in the health sector and they are in need of Tunisian services and to training in this area.