Ministry Of Health Found With Case To Answer In Awarding Honey Bee To Supply Medical Kits
By Logic Lukwanda
The Parliamentary Accounts Committee –PAC- has heard that full due diligence was not taken when the Ministry of Health awarded Honey Bee Pharmacy Limited a US$17 MILLION to supply medical kits.
This was revealed at the PAC sitting on Wednesday where Ministry Of Health Permanent Secretary for Administration Kakulubelwa Mulalelo, and Director For Procurement Wilson Banda, Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority –ZAMRA-, Medical Stores Limited, and the Zambia Bureau of Standards –ZABS- were summoned.
And ZABS Executive Director Manuel Mutale confirmed that according to tests, the latex condoms and gloves supplied by Honey Bee were substandard and results were submitted to ZAMRA and Medical Stores for a decision to be made.
But the committee heard that unfortunately, the fake condoms, gloves and Paracetamol was authorized for distribution more than three months ago by the office of the Permanent Secretary at The Ministry of Health despite the items being substandard.
The Ministry Of Health Permanent Secretary for Administration, ZAMRA and Medical Stores all struggled to give satisfactory answers on why fake condoms and gloves have been distributed to the public and no recall of the products has been done three months after the distribution, thereby putting the lives of many people at risk.
Meanwhile, Honey Bee Pharmacy through one of its directors Zakir Motala failed to provide the addresses of the company as documents availed did not have such information including letterheads and has since been ordered to provide the information in a few days.
And as more irregularities were revealed in the multimillion-dollar contract, it was discovered that ZAMRA in 2019 did reject awarding Honey Bee a certificate due to 17 inadequacies, but after the release of the Auditor General’s report in 2020, a meeting without minutes was held by ZAMRA on a weekend and certification was done.
Chairperson of PAC Howard Kunda and his members rebuked the Ministry of Health for what they called poor and reckless running of a sensitive ministry that deals with lives of people and demanded that all the anomalies be resolved even if a lot of damage has already been done.
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