SOME officers at Medical Stores Limited and government clinics have allegedly formed a cartel which is stealing medicines which they later supply to chemists and private clinics in Lusaka.
Ministry of Health deputy director of pharmaceutical services Chikuta Mbewe also disclosed in an interview yesterday that the drugs which were seized from a chemist in Lusaka’s Chipata township on Wednesday have been valued at K4,200.
Mr Mbewe said investigations into the matter have continued to establish the people behind the theft of government drugs.
“We are still investigating and what we want now is to establish the source of the medicines. We want to know who has been supplying these medicines,” Dr Mbewe said.
He said the theft of medicines has been going on for a long time.
Mr Mbewe said the owner of the chemist where the medicines were seized on Wednesday is still on the run but that police will soon crack down on him.
He said the suspected Congolese national Bimiliah Aramanaraim has been receiving the stolen medicines for over two years.
“We now know that this man (Aramanaraim) has been doing this for more than two years now. You can imagine the loss Government has suffered,” he said.
Deputy Minister of Health Christopher Mulenga recently told Parliament that Government has set up a task force to curb the theft of Government medicines.
Dr Mulenga said Government medicines will now be colour-coded and fixed with a coat of arms to distinguish them from privately purchased medicines.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health made a breakthrough by cracking down on a chemist that has been pilfering medicines meant for government health institutions and selling it for profit on the black market.
In this year’s national budget, Government set aside K738 million for the purchase of essential medicines needed to provide quality health care services in government health institutions.
Zambians always have a soft spot for foreigners.
A Zambian fears a white man and will do and believe anything he says no matter how stup1d it may be.
A Zambian will steal and sell essential drugs to a Congolese while his relatives in hospitals go without treatment.
Its hard to change the Zambians’ mentality towards doing good first for themselves
you are right General, I remember a Ghanaian fellow fooling Zambians when he said that Zambians are very good people you ask for direction to some place they will stop whatever they are doing and take you to the place.
Thats how they’ve always operated. Did you just notice?
People are dying due to lack of medicines in hospitals coz someone is stealing
The name Bimiliah Aramanaraim sounds Nyamulenge of the Banyamulenge tribe. The fella has already jumped border into some forest. Police must punish the suppliers.
The solution lies in fighting the root cause of the problem. If the Nyamulenge is arrested and punished, so what? We need to establish how these drugs are leaving Medical Stores and then plug the drain! Yes we need to prosecute and punish the perpetrators but if we do not seal the loop-hole, we shall be prosecuting people year-in-year-out!
So what measures have been put in place to cartel the continuation of drug theft from medical stores?first they would have established that the medicine has gone missing.but alas the medicine was found at a drug store in the compound.How is the distribution exercise done to various health institutions?do they provide security when dispatching these drugs?do they reconcile there stock?nor audit them?alot needs to be done moreover where medical store is located…just behind buseko market that speaks volumes about the security of these drugs.
be serious and form these task forces in all districts to install fear in drug store owners to stop buying GRZ medicines educate them the dangers of buying such drugs even at cheaper price those *****s wont have market and they will stop stealing
Impossible to totally stop pilferage . Can only reduce it .
Bwana Deputy Minister.I hope you are not talking about colour- coding and fixing coats-of-arms on packaging,or even containers.It is useless.I want to see you colour- coding and fixing coats-of arms on the tablets themselves.I will give you even more kudos if you do the same on fluids and liquids like injectable medicines.
it has been happening for sometime and u want to make arrrests now? CNP at its highest level
It won’t work in Zambia unfortunately.
The same task force guys will just worsen the situation.
The business is so profitable that they will be unable to resist it.
It takes values to make it work!
The problem is with the Government , Health Workers are being given responsibilities to run Clinics without being confirmed as in-charges and there is no responsibility allowance how do expect accountability in Clinics. for example all in-charges in NORTH WESTERN PROVINCE are in acting position with Zero allowances .
It saddens me that articles like this one get far fewer views and comments than other less important ones. Anyway, this combined with the recent ARV shortages (are they still going on? Have the government or donors explained what happened or been transparent about the shortages) is too much! No more empty words, appropriate steps must be taken to track the flow of medicines and enable thieves to be caught early on.
people found involved in stealing drugs at medical stores must be seriously taken to court to face the law.