Medicine and Medical Supplies Crisis Press Statement by Economic and Equity Party (EEP)
Chilufya Tayali
By Economic and Equity Party (EEP)
CHILUFYA TAYALI
EEP PRESIDENT
Ladies and gentlemen, I am a bearer of a bad news, to inform you that, we have a crisis caused by the incompetence and corruption of the New Dawn Government. Apart from mealie-meal crisis we have a crisis of medicines and health supplies. This is a serious crisis because many of our people will die due to lack of proper healthcare.
Soon after taking over Government, the United Party for National Development (UPND) went on rampage to blacklist a number of our pharmaceutical companies, labeling them to be linked to former ruling party Patriotic Front (PF). This political insecurity created a break in medicines and medical supplies and we experienced shortages.
A “Special Report Of The Committee On Health, Community Development And Social Services On The Availability Of Medicines And Medical Supplies In Health Facilities Countrywide For The Second Session Of The Thirteenth National Assembly” as sanctioned by the Rt Hon Madam Speaker on Friday, 7th October, 2022 revealed that; national average availability rate was at 53.1 per cent, far below the recommended WHO stock availability rate of 70 – 80 per cent at all times and that almost all the facilities visited attributed the shortage of medicines and medical supplies being experienced countrywide to ZAMMSA.
The UPND Government took an expedition to look for new suppliers which landed the Minister of Health, Honorable Sylvia Masebo into Egypt in June last year. You may recall that after this trip we began hearing about Egypt drugs. At some point we heard about procurement of drugs from some company called Egycopp, and when this was brought in public scrutiny, the project was abandoned.
In January this year, this minister, sent a team of about 14 people to Egypt, led by the Presidential advisor on health, Professor Roma Chiyengi. This team had people from Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, ZAMMSA DG, Mr. Billy Mweetwa, ZPPA and ZAMRA. The goal was to come with drugs from Egypt.
Ladies and Gentlemen: This crisis of medicines and medical supplies is caused by political insecurity of the UPND, incompetence and corruption. Due to their insecurity and selfishness, this Govt has labelled Zambian businesses criminal and political.
However, they have also embraced corruption at a large scale such that they just don’t care how citizens are affected. In this regard, they have created an artificial crisis to push a corruption agenda.
Like they did with maize stock, they are intentionally depriving Zambians of drugs to create panic and anxiety, and then take advantage of the situation to evade the procurement Laws and regulations.
Fellow Zambians, I want you to know that we don’t have a public procurement method called Government-to-Government. The Public Procurement Act No.8 of 2020, Section 38 provides for 15 methods of procurement, and none of them is called Government-to-Government. This Minister and her ZAMMSA have been propagating the lie that this Egypt scuff is a Government-to-Government procurement, can you point us to what that method is, where is it in our Laws? No, it doesn’t exist.
The bidding document sent to Unified Procurement Authority of Egypt (UPA) is a basic standard bidding documents with corrupt adjustments meant to evade the safety, efficacy and quality assurance measures enshrined in the The Medicines And Allied Substances Act, 2013.
PART V, Section 39. (1) reads
A person shall not place on the market, advertise, market, manufacture, sell, IMPORT, SUPPLY, administer or deal in any manner with any medicine or allied substance without a marketing authorisation issued by the Authority.
This is the Law that ensures the quality and safety of drugs given to the Zambian people is assured. The exception to this requirement is when there is a declared health emergency as we saw in in the use of Covid-19 vaccines.
Section 39. (2) A person who intends to place on the market, …, sell, import, supply, administer or deal in any manner with any medicine or allied substance shall apply to the Authority for a marketing authorisation in the prescribed manner and form.
By this Law, you cannot import and later on administer unregistered medicines to Zambians, it doesn’t matter whether they are from Egypt, or it is government to government. Egyptians have not registered the 258 medicines you want to buy from them, there is NO Marketing authorization held by any Egyptian company on these 258 medicines. The quality of these medicines is therefore Not ascertained, please this will be a crime.
The ZAMMSA document shows that UPA just needs to state that they will register medicines before delivery. What a grand corruption, organized crime we are witnessing! Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) takes years to register just one product, they currently have a back log of over 3 years applications, they will register these 258 products in a matter of weeks?? Zambians, please wake up, this criminality will kill all of us. This appetite to corruptly force these drugs on us must be stopped. I have analysed the bidding documents that ZAMMSA issues to our suppliers, specifically, ITB 6.4 demands that only products registered with ZAMRA are quoted for. Why is this not the case with Egyptians? Bapompwe munshibila nsala (shameless thieves). You create a medical crisis to cash in? is that how you look at our lives?
Ladies and Gentlemen: I want to show you the magnitude of organized corruption at ZAMMSA under Mr. Billy Mweetwa as Director General. Last Year, 2022, we had a drug budget of ZMW 3.6 billion. By the time Special Report of The Committee On Health, Community Development And Social Services On The Availability Of Medicines And Medical Supplies In Health Facilities Countrywide For The Second Session Of The Thirteenth National Assembly was compiled, ZAMMSA had signed a total of 34 contracts valued at ZMW 2 billion. Over ZMW 1.8 billion (over 90%) of this money went into single sourcing foreign companies. See attached appendix. Mission Pharma was single sourced on the 15th April 2022 at ZMW 474,096,000. Important to note on this contract was that they were paid in advance through a letter of credit. Toady is 15th April 2023; Zambians have not received their medicines from this company. Mr. Mweetwa and his ZAMMSA have embarked on a mission to ship our money in foreign hands. How is it that Mweetwa and his friends have sent all this money out to their foreign friends and we still do not have drugs?
This level of corruption is unprecedented! This corruption is in fact a crime against the Public Procurement Act of 2020. This Law directs that procurement must take open bidding as a preferred method of public procurement.
Section 38 reads
(1) The objective of open bidding is to obtain value for money and promote private sector participation through the maximum possible competition. …
(4) Where a procuring entity uses a method of procurement other than open bidding the procuring entity shall include, in the record of procurement, a statement of the reasons and circumstances on which the procuring entity relied on to justify the use of the other method.
What reasons does ZAMMSA keep feeding Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) to justify perpetual single sourcing?
As a matter of fact, even in justifiable cases of single sourcing, in this act,
Section 89 (1) provides that A bidder is eligible to participate in a procurement if ….
(h) in the case of a foreign bidder or local bidders that bidder partners with a citizen supplier.
This is a legal requirement for all local and international companies, regardless of the procurement method used, these MUST partner with citizen companies.
Fellow Zambians, check the list attached here, do you see any partnerships in a ZMW 1.8 billion worthy of contracts dished out to foreign companies?? NONE. Even in this Egypt saga, Madam Minister you should know, your days are coming, you will have to face the Law.
I know from the sources, that Egypt is demanding for 100 % advance payment. They want Zambia to advance this corruption.
Mr. Mweetwa and your Minister, Zambia is a country of Laws, you cannot do as you please. Public money my friend is not money you spend as you please, it has Laws and regulations. I can assure all of you abusing our resources at Ministry of Health and ZAMMSA, you will answer sooner rather than later.
CHILUFYA TAYALI
EEP PRESIDENT
