Why would the Minister of Health decide to initiate a fresh single sourced procurement process worth UD$70m when her Ministry has quarantined essential medicines in Zambia just needing re-testing?
Lusaka – Sometime last year, two Zambian Pharmaceutical companies approached the Zambian government for permission to bring in medicines from India to be sold in private pharmacies and some to be distributed in health centres under the Ministry of Health.
The two companies are Karibu Pharmaceuticals Limited and Pharma Plus Limited both based in Lusaka.
The manufacturer from India is a company called Leben Laboratories Pvt Limited that has been supplying medicines to Zambian agents for the past 20 years or so.
A team of experts from Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) was dispatched to India to conduct inspections and it was satisfied with its initial findings.
The two local companies were, consequently, given a go ahead with their procurement process.
As the consignment was on its way to Zambia, the two companies received a shock of a message from Government instructing them not to distribute the consignment once it arrived in Zambia because Authorities had discovered some anomalies in the consignment.
By this time, the distribution chain meant that the consignment was already in the hands of the two importers and not the manufacturer.
The importers had no problem with the directive because they were satisfied that the consignment met the international standards and indeed the 9 containers were offloaded at a secure place awaiting re-inspection by ZAMRA.
To their surprise, the Zambian government has insisted on quarantining the medicines despite the owners challenging it through ZAMRA to test the medicines at any Laboratory of ZAMRA’s choice at the expense of the importers and once any medicine is found unfit, the Zambian government should destroy it and if found to be fit for human consumption and the Zambian government still does not want it distributed in Zambia, allow the importers to re-export it to a neighbouring country that is willing to procure the consignment.
◾Revisiting the Honeybee hoax.
The concern of the whistleblower is that this may end up like the Honeybee scandal which we now understand was a hoax ab initio.
The former Health Minister, Hon. Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, has always insisted that there was a cartel in the Patriotic Front government whose mission was to push him into political oblivion and had later challenged the new dawn government to thoroughly investigate the alleged expired drugs scandal.
Also Read: A report by a Parliamentary Committee confirms that the “Honeybee Scandal” was a hoax.
The former Health Minister emphasised that both the past government and the current one should remember that politicians hold the power in trust from the people to whom they should be accountable. And they must protect all citizens.
“We must endeavour never to manipulate oversight institutions in order to settle scores with perceived political enemies. Let’s not defile science. Let’s not falsify reports just to inflame the nation,” Dr. Chilufya said.
◾But this case is not a political battle but reeks of corruption.
While the Ministry of Health is reluctant to re-test the essential drugs it ordered to be quarantined, the Minister of Health, Hon. Sylvia Masebo, has been reported to be single sourcing an Egyptian company to supply drugs worth US$70m.
Also Read: Single sourced $70m MoH contract reeks of corruption.
And leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Hon. Brian Mundubile has said the transaction smells of corruption.
“We believe that it is because of the corruption in the UPND Administration that they have picked single sourcing as a mode of procurement,” he said.
◾Why doesn’t GRZ want to test the medicines?
The Whistleblower’s main question is this; With no medicines in government health centres, why can’t government test the medicines at a laboratory of its choice at the expense of the importers? Karibu has 3,608 cartons while Pharma Plus has 4,159 Cartons quarantined.
Also Read: The Masebo Infanny: The $100 million scandal at Ministry of Health.
Why would the Minister of Health decide to initiate a fresh single sourced procurement process worth UD$70m when her Ministry has essential medicines quarantined in Zambia under very suspicious circumstances?
◾Conclusion.
In conclusion, we wish to urge the Zambian government to take the issue of lack of drugs in hospitals seriously. There will be no loss to Government to re-test the consignment because the importers have undertaken to foot the bill.
On several occassions, the new dawn administration has accused the former ruling party of sabotaging its programmes because it still has many civil servants loyal to it.
But this case is proof that it may not even be the case. The UPND Government may be sabotaging itself by being naive and selective for nothing.
▪️Test the medicines. There are no medicines on the shelves. Besides, it is at the importers’ cost.
▪️As for the latest US$70m procurement contract involving an Egyptian firm, which smells of corruption, use an international open tender.
Are we seeing another Honeybee hoax in the offing while ordinary people lose their lives to preventable causes?
Credit: The Zambian Whistleblower broke this story. We have just added more information.
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