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TCivil Service Commission (CSC), Ministry of Public Service, Ministry of Health and the Office of the Auditor General (AG) should be applauded for taking action that is meant to ascertain why there are shortages of medicines in the country’s public health institutions yet government is spending hundreds of millions of Emalangeni in purchasing medical drugs every year. In fact, in the financial year ended March 31, 2022, government spent over E1 billion on medical drugs. How then, one wonders, does the country run out of medicine? Surely, someone somewhere is not doing their job or there are loopholes where these drugs disappear into. The suspension of officers under the Ministry of Health, especially those in the Central Medical Stores, to pave way for the conducting of a forensic investigation, is a significant step in the right direction.
That is what should be happening when government’s different portfolios work in concert. Effort should now be on ensuring that the forensic investigation is conducted without fear or favour and that the recommendations are implemented without selection. Let us not see what has been seen before. As noted by the AG, Timothy Matsebula, in his ‘Forensic Investigation Proposal and Audit of Acquisition, Distribution, and Management of Pharmaceuticals Report’ published on August 25, 2022, the issue of probing medicine shortages in the public health facilities is not new.
HE CHAIRED
To try and address this problem, an Inter-Ministerial Task Team chaired by the Late Sikelela Dlamini (then Ministry of Health Principal Secretary) was established by the then Prime Minister, the late Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini. The objective of the committee was to establish the root causes of the inconsistent availability of medicines and medical supplies and further recommend solutions.
The committee is said to have submitted its report dated July 18, 2017, which had recommendations. However, Matsebula said his office could not evaluate the status of implementing the recommendations of the task team since there was no evidence showing that since the task team was established by Cabinet, the Ministry of Health made any progress reports stating the status of implementation even to Cabinet. As a result Matsebula’s team could not ascertain whether there were any challenges that the task team experienced. For all we know, the recommendations gathered dust wherever they were stored. This time, we don’t need any such tendencies and waste of public funds and precious time. The issue of drugs shortage has been a thorn in the lives of emaSwati and should be dealt with once and for all. It is apparent that there are people who are richly benefitting from the shortage. Reports of theft of these drugs have been rife and one hopes the forensic investigation will bring about proof of these allegations and bring those responsible to book. If someone has to go to jail for this, so be it!