Maravi

Govt should explain k24bn expired drugs

Govt should explain k24bn expired drugs
By George Chellah
Wednesday April 18, 2007 [04:00]

GOVERNMENT should come out clean on the K24 billion worth of expired drugs that are being kept at great storage costs, Transparency International-Zambia (TIZ) president Reuben Lifuka has demanded. And Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) president Joyce Nonde said if the nation was serious about good governance, discussions involving public funds should be open to the media.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly has with immediate effect indefinitely suspended the accreditation of Post journalist Chibaula Silwamba for reporting on proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which sat in camera.

And Post managing editor Amos Malupenga has said the newspaper would only retract and apologise over its Monday's headline story if the PAC provided the true version of what transpired during its private meeting last Friday.

Commenting on Auditor General Anna Chifungula's threats to stop auditing the Ministry of Health (MoH) if Permanent Secretary Dr Simon Miti continues to be uncooperative, Lifuka urged the MoH to provide answers to questions being raised by the Auditor General.

"The Ministry of Health should not play polemics with the issue. Let them provide answers if she has raised questions on the K24 billion...including the Secretary to the Cabinet (Dr Joshua Kanganja), these permanent secretaries work for him. It's not the issue of him defending anyone here," Lifuka said. "We have approached it in a very mild manner. Even in this particular case, doesn't it provide a serious indictment in the way the government is running its business especially that one would have thought that the Ministry of Health should be the last to lose such amounts of money. We demand that government comes out clean on the K24 billion. We want government to put an end to this."

Lifuka said from the manner the Ministry of Health was polarising the issue, it was clear that there was something they are hiding. "We can't afford to wait until we lose trillions of kwacha. We should deal with ailing controlling officers and not shielding them.

Permanent secretaries should be fully accountable," Lifuka said. "They are the controlling officers, if their ministry is corrupt, we will consider them corrupt as well. We need answers to this K24 billion expired drugs issues."

Lifuka expressed dissatisfaction with the manner the Auditor General's reports are being treated. "One would have wanted to see the actual details. But the question is... is the system working? Yes, we have an Auditor General who provides reports all the time," Lifuka said. "Looking at the insolence being exhibited by the controlling officers, it's an indication that they know that nothing will come out of the Auditor General's reports."

When reminded about Chifungula's threats to stop auditing MoH, Lifuka responded: "You get a sense of frustration on the part of the Auditor General. We should account for public expenditure. These are public funds. The polarisation of the issue between the Auditor General and the permanent secretary, though it's getting rather personal, is not going to serve the interests of Zambians."
And Nonde called on controlling officers to embrace auditors and not treat them as enemies.

"What we have discovered is that innocent people and those who don't believe in wastage of resources support auditors. It's only those who are criminal minded who don't. I have seen this myself and I am talking from experience because I have been in the accounting industry," she said.

Nonde said FFTUZ was alarmed with the revelations coming out of the parliamentary committees.

"Anyone who is innocent should support these efforts by the Auditor General. We also demand that we are given reason why K24 billion worthy of drugs expired when so many people in this country cannot access drugs," Nonde said. "We demand for an explanation as taxpayers and the people responsible can't just get away with it."
She said Dr Miti's unco-operative behaviour as revealed by the Auditor General was totally unacceptable. "He has to co-operate. One even wonders why some controlling officers can be so rude and be left free. We demand that answers be given to Chifungula's questions," Nonde said.

She said discussions involving public funds should be open to the media. "Why hold the matters in camera? Taxpayers' money issues should not be in camera. We are the taxpayers so we demand that they should be open. We want to hear the government officers defend themselves," Nonde said. "We are happy with what is happening. That's why we support the media bill because if you are serious about good governance these are issues you should look at."

Chifungula has threatened to stop auditing the Ministry of Health if Dr Miti continues to be uncooperative. She stated that she would have no option but to exercise her constitutional rights not to audit the Ministry of Health so that all funding to the ministry would be treated as being at risk.

And Milupi stated that contents of The Post lead story on Monday stating that Secretary to the Cabinet Joshua Kanganja shielded Dr Miti and sided with permanent secretaries when he appeared before the committee were untrue and misleading because they did not reflect Kanganja's oral and written submission to PAC that sat in camera. "In order to promote transparency and accountability and, in accordance with the National Assembly of Zambia Standing Order No. 130(1), sittings of sessional committees of the National Assembly are held in public, though any committee has discretion to hold meetings in camera depending on the nature of the matter under consideration as was the case with the aforementioned meeting," Milupi stated.

He requested that the story be retracted unreservedly and an apology made for the inconvenience caused to the persons referred to in the story.

And in a letter dated April 16, 2007 to Malupenga, National Assembly media liason officer Chikomeni Banda stated that the Monday story purported to highlight what transpired during the PAC meeting that was held in camera. "This story is not only untrue and misleading but is also against the rules of procedure which forbid publication of proceedings of the Assembly or its committees which are held in camera without the express authority of the Assembly," Banda stated. "...It is with this background that I wish to inform you that the author of the story Chibaula Silwamba's accreditation to cover Parliamentary proceedings has been suspended until further notice."

But in a letter dated April 17, 2007 to Milupi, Malupenga stated that The Post had no problem retracting and apologising if it was established that the Monday story was incorrect. "I refer to the above statement which you released on Monday April 16, 2007 stating that the contents of our lead story for the said day under the headline Kanganja Shields Dr Miti Against Auditor General were untrue and misleading. Therefore, you have requested us to retract the same and offer apologies to the parties concerned," Malupenga's letter read in part. "We have no problem retracting and apologising if it is established that our report was incorrect.

But unfortunately, you did not state what is untrue and misleading about our story. We say this because it is not everything reported in that story that could be said to be views of your Public Accounts Committee or indeed its official record.

"If you read our story again, you will notice that the bulk of it was quoting sources giving their views about this whole issue after listening to Auditor General Ms Anna Chifungula, permanent secretary Dr Simon Miti and Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Joshua Kanganja. These views or observations, in our opinion, are not unfounded and can be supported."

Malupenga requested Milupi's office to state clearly what the true position in the matter was. "As at now, the only factual error we can detect from our said story is the statement that Dr Miti's letter to Ms Chifungula dated April 12, 2007 was copied to the First Lady Mrs Maureen Mwanawasa," Malupenga stated. "As you may have noticed in our edition today, we have corrected this error and published the letter in full just to show our readers what the correct position is...It is with this in mind that we request your honourable office to state clearly what the true position is in this matter before we declare our story untrue and misleading. We wait to hear from you."

Labels: AUDITOR GENERAL, CORRUPTION, FFTUZ, JOYCE NONDE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, TIZ

posted by MrK @ 3:59 AM