PROCUREMENT SPECIALIST DEFENDS HONEYBEE DEAL

APROCUREMENT specialist has described as unnecessary calls for dismissal of Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya and his team over the honeybee pharmacy saga.

Former Zambia Institute of Purchasing and Supply Secretary General Mollen Mwituma said in Kitwe that such demands were uncouth and that they ought to be discarded by all well-meaning Zambians that truly understood the consequences of relying on Importing. He explained that in procurement, one of the most critical stages of the tender procedure was the drawing of specifications drawn by the internal customers.

Last week on Wednesday, it was discovered during the Public Accounts Committee sitting that Honeybee Pharmacy supplied substandard condoms and gloves in September 2020, without conducting any quality assurance tests.

This has led to most sections of society calling for the dismissal of the minister of health and his team.

But Mr Mwitumwa believed that the procurement team at the Ministry of Health did its best and that the best bidder was Honey Bee Pharmacy at that time.

“The procurement team will only award the tender to the bidder that responds to the ITT (Invitation to Tender) in conformity to the drawn specifications with respect to the Government’s proposed payment terms drawn by the buying entity and of which at the time of awarding the contract.

“We must however bear in mind that for the drawn specifications to be met, as the procuring entity, you need to have the financial capacity to meet the supplier’s financial conditions at the time of supply and this is where we missed it,” he said.

Mr Mwitumwa said that according to the reports produced by the Ministry of Health, Honey Bee had not been paid any money over the supplied consignment.

He said that the payment terms were that Government gets a six months credit facility which would be due in March, 2021.

He explained that this was because the Government had been struggling with finances in the recent past as observed from a lot of projects which had been halted.

Mr Mwitumwa further wondered how Honey Bee Pharmacy and the Ministry of Health were expected to meet their specifications if the money was paid in full.

He said Government had been struggling with finances of late stating that Dr Chilufya with his team at the Ministry could not take the blame.