By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
Portugal's Health Minister, Dr. Marta Temido has resigned after a pregnant tourist died while being transferred to a hospital with a maternity wing. Portugal’s public hospitals have been facing critical shortage of staff and Dr. Temido closed some neonatal units to respond to the shortage of gynecologist and obstetrics. But the death of one person has shamed the Minister so much that she has chosen to resign.
In Zambia, for one year now, hospitals, clinics, and health centers have faced critical shortages of medicines, medical supplies, utilities and lab reagents. The Cancer Disease Hospital is in such a terrible mess with lack of medicines and lab reagents and patients are forced to fork-out huge sums of money to facilitate treatment of the loved ones. Minister of Health Silvia Masebo abolished the procurement unit at the Ministry and transferred the functions to Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZMMSA) which previously only handled storage and distribution of medicines and medical supplies.
Hospitals and health centers have been forced to buy medicines from the open market using allocated administrative funds. For ZMMSA, it is now learning the ropes, putting up structures, mechanisms and regulations of procurement of drugs while patients die or are forced to buy their own medicines. Despite this crisis that has seen untold number of deaths, Hon.Silvia Masebo and her team remain put, but are busy issuing statements after statements justifying the crisis. It is clear that no one will resign or take responsibility as Portugal's Minister of Health has done. You can't wish shortages of medicines away; it has to be resolved. Similarly, the Ministry of Community Development is purchasing motorbikes for its officers distributing social-cash transfer to the old and vulnerable in rural areas. Government intended to spend K9.8million on the procurement of the motorbikes. This is a normal procurement.
However, in Opposition President Hakainde Hichilema had branded every purchase, every procurement, every construction, and every loan that the Patriotic Front Government did or obtained as corrupt or as deals being conducted by unqualified cadres or those connected to the leadership. So, it is not surprising that recent Government procurements have been subjected to the same standard.
A preliminary scrutiny of the motorbikes purchases immediately exposed that a company without bona-fide business address, was intending to supply motorbikes at K130,000.00 each. If this tender was awarded to reputable dealers of motorbikes such as Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and others, probably this debate would not have arisen. So social-media was awash with speculations that the supplier intended to buy cheap motorbikes at K25,000 each at Lusaka's town center and supply government at a cost of K130,000 each. While the Permanent Secretary Angela Kawanda mi said Kafelix Investments, the company awarded to supply the motorbikes was the best evaluated bid and was actually cheaper, the Minister, Hon. Doreen Mwamba came a few days later that this purchase was a Patriotic Front Government process and she was the Whistleblower against the purchase. We have seen this similar scape-goating at Ministry of Health where $100million hospital construction deal was about to go down and when it was exposed, the Ministry officials blamed the PF. It appears the Patriotic Front will continue to be blamed for purchases being done under New Dawn Budget until 2026.
I guess citizens won't buy these lies anymore. Similarly, it's interesting to note and clear high hypocrisy that most fertilizer tender lots at the Ministry of Agriculture, have been given to companies without history of supplying the commodity. An Audit and consulting firm is among those companies awarded to supply fertilizer. It must be noted that fertilizer, as a bulk commodity, requires advance piped contracts with manufacturers, and financing mechanisms with local banks. It is interesting to see if the new firms awarded will pull this off to meet the demands of the 2022/2023 farming season. But to perpetrate new corruption, the new leaders are determined to even risk the farming season without fertilizer in order to get a quick buck, a slice of the pie.
Has anything changed? It's the same corruption, if not higher, same dangerous attitude towards public funds as in the past. It appears that it is an opportunity to loot the treasury while they chase the other thieves.... For our people, they are disappointed, they say politicians are the same, it is Comme ci Comme ça, business as usual, corruption as usual...thieves raiding the treasury while they preach transparency and accountability.
