The Auditor General has commended Minister of Health Jonas Chanda’s hardline stance and directive for the destruction of all expired drugs in the country under storage by relevant government institutions.
According to a press statement issued to media in Lusaka on Tuesday by Head of Public Relations Ellen Chikale, Auditor General Dick Sichembe said the issue of expired drugs was raised by his Office in the 2016 Auditor General’s report.
Dr Sichembe said he has been following with keen interest developments in the health sector and supports the recent action taken by the Minister of Health, particularly, on the issues concerning the expired drugs and failure to dispose of the expired drugs among others.
Dr. Sichembe recalled that in the 2016 Auditor General’s Report, mention was made of various drugs such as anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), laboratory reagents, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria drugs worth K66, 801,022 which had expired and had not been disposed of as of June 2017.
Dr Sichembe stated that the expired drugs were kept at a rented warehouse in Makeni, Lusaka in baffling circumstances that involved one thousand seven hundred and sixty three (1,763) transactions.
The Auditor General has since called for appropriate action to be taken on all audit issues that his Office raises in order to avoid exposing citizens and the country to harm.
Dr Sichembe has since commended the Secretary to Cabinet and the Secretary to the Treasury for their timely disciplinary action meted on erring officers cited in the 2019 Auditor General’s Report.
Recently Minister of Health Jonas Chanda was shocked to discover that huge quantities of expired drugs were still in storage and had not been disposed- off by relevant government institutions mandated to store and distribute drugs in the country.
Dr Chanda said that the expired drugs posed a great risk to millions of Zambians if they find their way on the black market.
But what was Chilufya doing all this time mwe bantu, nangu tapalandwa….tulandepo…
WHO FAILED TO ACT ON THE FINDINGS OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT AND WHY IS OUR STARTING POINT? AND WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES FOR FAILING TO ACT?
Dr Chitalu Chilufya was more concerned about politics and not doing his work. The ministry was rotten to the core and yet president lungu kept him all this long until donors and the public could not take it anymore. How can right thinking people fail to destroy expired drugs but decide to waste state resources by renting a warehouse to keep useless drugs? People must be prosecuted, these dangerous selfish and unpatriotic people should not just get away by being fired, they must be prosecuted.
Dick Sichembe stick to your role and don’t play politics otherwise you’ll soon get the boot. The role of an auditor ends at submitting his report and to defend it. You can’t enforce your recommendations and neither can you make comments outside your jurisdiction. Your job is to audit and report to your superiors. Don’t be swayed by public sensation otherwise you’ll lose track. I therefore find this comment out of context. What is the motive?
Rot, corruption and decay has been a steady and pernicious vice. It didn’t start with PF even. They just found a comfortable, warm bed and continued sleeping in it. Time to change the setup. Don’t forget when Kapoko was nabbed ka?
We have always said to closed that Auditor General thing, it is useless. Over paid for results no one uses.
Auditor General is just an investigation reporter, frustrating people.
Today I woke up with a very serious bout of diarrhoea. I have never seen anything or experienced anything of this magnitude. Those trying to bewitch me, you have tried this time but you won’t manage. I serve a powerful God. Amen.
Pray for me.
Let’s audit the Auditor General, I’m very certain that we’ll find more irregularities than there are at MoH and Lands combined
A fish rots from the head……
lungu is a corrupt, incompetent hapless leader….
The PF rats are cheering at buildings and roads …..even my garden boy can build those using borrowed money….
Infact , any person can use borrowed money to build roads.
Sorry! Mr. KZ what did you eat? We wouldn’t want you to die before you witness change? Get well soon. we love you.
Well that Zambians have been subjected to under the PF are
1. Expired drugs
2. Expired economy
3. Expired morals
4. Expired kwacha
5. Expired freedoms
Kudos for making zambians test the hardest times.
Really!?! “The Dutch government has resigned amid an escalating scandal over child benefits in which more than 20,000 families were wrongly accused of fraud by the tax authority.” News of Jan 15, 2021. Utunensu!!!! We can only dream of similar behaviour but “wi a tayad, mwe!”
Dr chanda has really been doing a good job glad he had that visit
KZ you will not die..at least not before you see that Zambians in majority are tired of this government!!
Kachesa and your friends stop living in utopia, what change? Your leader is a seasoned election loser. As I said you won’t manage to kill me. And even if I die my ghost wont let you rest. Amen
The work Dr. Chanda is doing at the Ministry requires a lot of attention and commendation… He’s tried so far to make sure the ministry begins getting back to some normalcy
Yet Chilufya and his PS are walking the streets freely…if Lazy acted then all these problems wouldnt be there at MOH but the man is inept.
Why hasn’t the Permanent Secretary Technical been fired as well?
In Zambia politicking and political rhetoric carries lots of priority than services delivery! Some actions by politicians are deliberate for something has to avail that can be used for political expediency! See the medicines listed as expired and including the critical life saving Insulin that has been mentioned! Medicines are rotting in storerooms while the sung about constructed clinics go begging for drugs and staff! The folly among Zambians of not demanding what is deserved is what is reducing the population seeking medical (lack of it) intervention.
We have said it before that PF regime is incapable of doing anything sensible – there you are Dr Dick Sichembe ‘Palibe nzelu apa, Tapaba amano- uchizengende fye.
So all this expired drugs are nothing to do with Honeybee.
Atleast slowly the narrative is coming clear.
It is failure to destroy expired drugs but atleast those drugs have been kept away from the public.
And for Honeybee there are no expired drugs. Just a few batches of drugs requirering a recall just like many other drugs from other companies.
Atleast that is a relief.
Seems like Chitalu Chilufya was too busy outside looking at people’s problems while the people inside were busy dozing Nd did not do their work of disposing off the drugs.
We need to Audit public accounts committee and the Auditor General as well because this work has been pending since 2016 as per confession from Mr. Sichembe.
What has he done about it since 2016 for him to be making so much noise now.
For all I know this man is not so upright himself. I actually have some juicy details and pictures of where he takes his lady friends for a good time.