By NATION REPORTER
THE importation of medicines and other medical supplies from foreign companies is against the recommendation and advice from the Parliamentary Committee Report which recommended that local pharmaceutical companies should be supported by Government to allow them grow and expand their businesses, Stephen Kampyongo has said.
And Mr Kampyongo has appealed to President Hakainde Hichilema not to use a phone to demand for exculpation from his Cabinet Ministers who are allegedly involved in corruption but should instead be decisive and crack the whip against erring government officials.
In an interview, Mr Kampyongo, the Shiwang’andu Patriotic Front (PF) Member of Parliament, said it was disheartening that Government was shunning local pharmaceutical companies in the supply of medicines in preference for foreign companies when the drugs could be procured at a cheaper and competitive price within the country.
He said Government had been advised through the Parliamentary Committee Report to come up with a deliberate policy to support and grow the local pharmaceutical companies which have been supporting the health sector for more than two decades.
He stated that while Government was procuring medicines and other medical supplies from outside the country, local players with drugs were stuck with their stocks which they could easily supply and deliver to government at a much less cost than imported drugs.
Mr Kampyongo said some of the local pharmaceutical companies were being forced to close their manufacturing plants and were laying off workers because the UPND administration was shunning them on the perception that they were sympathetic of the previous administration.
“We have been lamenting in Parliament that there is a big challenge in the Ministry of Health but our good Minister has branded us as people who are just politicking. It had to take the acting Minister of Health, Mr Charles Milupi to admit that indeed there was an acute shortage of medicines in the country. Our colleague Chinga Miyutu was at the brink of crying in Parliament over the shHe said it was shocking that the UPND that was professing fighting corruption was engaging foreign companies in the delivery of goods and services so that they could claim kickbacks from contractors.
Mr Kampyongo had admitted in parliament on the need to support and empower local companies in the health sector and that there should never have been a break in the supply and delivery of drugs had the UPND administration cared to respect continuity in governance.
He said some of the local players in the pharmaceutical industry were owed huge amounts of money from the previous government, which debt should have been dismantled before engaging new contractors.
“They think it is easy to offer foreign companies contracts because they want to solicit for kickbacks. The entire health sector is going to collapse if the President does not take remedial measures. But we have a President who wants his ministers to exculpate themselves on phone and they get cleared. We do not expect the President to make a phone call to the Health Minister. Let him just act,” Mr Kampyongo said.
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