Suspend Mwaba over K13m  expired ARVs, says NRP

Tue, 22 Nov 2016 11:11:33 +0000

MINISTRY of Health permanent secretary Peter Mwaba should be immediately suspended to pave way for investigations in the procurement of expired ARVs worth over K13 million, the National Revolution Party has said.

NRP president Cozmo Mumba told the Daily Nation yesterday that Dr. Mwaba should be suspended and a committee of inquiry established to investigate the circumstances under which the ARVs and other drugs worth over K13 million expired when health institutions in the country were in dire need of medicines.

Mr. Mumba said it was a shame that Dr. Mwaba could even defend himself and blame Medical Stores Limited for accepting the drugs which they knew had a short shelf life, saying he was not working on a voluntary basis for him to fail to execute his supervisory duties diligently.

He said if drugs worth so much money could be lost through carelessness, there was no reason for the ministry claiming that there was a shortage of drugs in the country because that was a huge consignment.

He said lack of prudence in management of State institutions had forced Government to spend more on shoddy services, adding that the loss of ARVs at the Ministry of Health could just be a tip of the iceberg, hence the need for Dr. Mwaba and all those involved to be suspended pending investigations.

“As NRP, we are calling for an immediate suspension of Dr. Mwaba and the intuition of a committee of inquiry to establish the circumstances under which the country received a consignment of drugs whose shelf life was not ascertained because he is paid for the job he is doing at the ministry. There is no justification for him to heap the blame on Medical Stores because that shows he is not doing his job diligently,” Mr. Mumba said.

“We cannot allow a situation where a country like Zambia which is grappling with economic challenges to be spending huge sums of money over goods and services which do not only benefit Zambians but put our patients at risk and we will not rest until justice prevails over this issue and any measures to address the problem should start with the suspension of Dr. Mwaba.”

ARVs and other drugs worth K13,750,821 procured by the Ministry of Health have expired and a board of survey has since been constituted to dispose of the drugs, the permanent secretary told the Parliamentary Accounts Committee last week.

The committee had also interrogated the health permanent secretary over undelivered medical equipment worth K22,701,785 despite the supplier being overpaid by K23,122,641 as reported by the Auditor General.

Dr Mwaba blamed Medical Stores Limited for accepting drugs worth so much money when the supplier knew about their short shelf life.

But Dr Mwaba, who is the controlling officer in the Ministry of Health, disclosed that Zambia was supplied with Anti-Retroviral Therapy laboratory commodities that had a short shelf lifespan through a K7,289,648 (US$1,041,378.34) contract awarded to Scientific Group Limited.

Appearing before the committee this month, Dr Mwaba said it was regrettable that MSL accepted the drugs with a short shelf lifespan.

He explained that during the year under review by the Auditor General, the Ministry of Health paid amounts totalling K745,016,149 to foreign and local suppliers for the supply and delivery of laboratory reagents and cancer and malaria drugs but that from the total procurement, drugs worth K13,750,821 had expired and were awaiting disposal.