WE MAY not put it aptly or any better than Dr Anna Chifungula, that the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies (ZAMMSA’s) reputation is damaged.
Dr Chifungula is no ordinary voice at ZAMMSA. She is the chairperson.
Dr Chifungula, a Chartered Accountant of impeccable reputation who spent 13 years as the country’s Auditor General and only retired in 2015 says misinformation has damaged the reputation of ZAMMSA.
She says ZAMMSA has become famous for bad reasons due to misinformation peddled by people she did not know.
Indeed, in the recent past, ZAMMSA became a household name after news broke that 61 trucks loaded with essential medicines “vanished” by way of being diverted to a private warehouse in Lusaka.
There was outrage from the public, the opposition and Members of Parliament and other stakeholders who demanded answers on the scandals that had embroiled ZAMMSA.
But who has damaged ZAMMSA’s reputation?
We think Ms Chifungula is skirting the issue by being diplomatic and not explaining the underlying issues.
After all, it is in the public domain that the procurement of medicines was hijacked by the Ministry of Health which single-sourced the medicines.
ZAMMSA was reduced to be a mere receiving agency.
Dr Chifungula actually prodded whistleblowers to “blow” in ZAMMSA’s direction so that those who have damaged the organisation’s reputation can be “smoked out.”
In the absence of a forensic audit report of ZAMMSA, the organisation’s reputation will continue to be questioned.
However, we are glad that while Dr Chifungula says the 61 trucks were accounted for, and have a reasonable expiry period of 18 months to two years, she admits that there were 16 trucks marooned at a private facility instead of being at ZAMMSA warehouse.
In Dr Chifungula’s own words: “In fact, we should be talking of 16 (missing trucks) because the rest of them came in June just a few days before the minister announced that they had found the (missing) trucks.
“The 16 which had been there since January or February as they said, I think that is the one where we are supposed to concentrate. Why did the 16 trucks stay stationed in that place? What was happening? Those 16 (trucks) contained IV Fluids …there was cholera and Corona. There was an issue of over buying…. Why were too many IV-Fluids bought? To me, that is where we are supposed to concentrate.”
Like we stated, Dr Chifungula was the country’s Auditor General. She dealt with such matters year-in-year-out in a painstakingly impeccable manner.
So we ask again. Who has damaged ZAMMSA’s reputation?
These are the answers Zambians want as this matter will in the near future come to haunt this administration.
Could it be that as Chairperson, she may not be aware that someone inside or close by ZAMMSA had turned the institution into a cash cow?
We urge the ZAMMSA board to make public its forensic audit report and identify the real culprits.
We are certain, just like Dr Chifungula is, that donors are as interested as most Zambians to know exactly what happened to the trucks-gate saga.
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