The cover up efforts by the Ministry of Health has been exposed after a source who is member of the Ministry’s integrity committee told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that people that were involved in the suspected corrupt award of a contract to supply Cholera drugs to Former Pharmaceutical Society President Jerome Kanyika or the company he represents have all been transferred.
Jerome Kanyika has also been caught up in his own web of lies after he denied ever being arrested over the importation of suspected counterfeit Cholera drugs.
A News Diggers report has confirmed that a letter from Kanyika’s lawyers has confirmed that he was indeed arrested.
ZBT had earlier been tipped that the Drug Enforcement Commission – DEC and Police who had effected the arrest of Kanyika and impounded the truck had been pressured to hand over the case and impounded truck to ZAMRA.
ZAMRA later confirmed with ZBT that the truckload of suspected counterfeit Cholera drugs had been handed over and was at it’s premises for further investigations. A source at ZAMRA however said the matter was very sensitive and could not share more details.
So, when ZBT followed up the matter with the ministry of health who have the records of contracts awarded, most officers stated that they were afraid to share more details but refered ZBT to the integrity committee as it’s members as expected to support corruption investigations.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ZBT, Alice Mwanza a secretariat member under the Ministry of Health Integrity Committee who spoke on behalf of a committee members under the procurement Department confirmed to ZBT that the procurement department has no information on any case involving Kanyika or the issuance of a contract to import Chorela drugs to a company that he represents.
When pressed to explain how the procurement department which keeps the paper and system trails of which contracts are given out had no information when Kanyika himself had referred ZBT to the Ministry of Health, Mwanza attributed the procurement committee having information on the case to most procurement committee members being new as a result of most of the erstwhile members being transferred to other locations.
Asked whether the new committee members where not given hand over notes or handed with the information of contract details before relocating to their new locations, Mwanza avoided the question and referred all queries to the spokesperson for the ministry of Health.
“I managed to talk to [one of ] the committee member under the procurement department but he told me that he doesn’t have any information on that case and it would be better for you to go through the spokesperson for the ministry.
As a committee we have new members, a lot of our members have been transferred, so the person I was talking to is quite new. This is why they are referring the case to the spokesperson for the Ministry,” she said.
“The mandate for the integrity committee is not to start looking for these people who have made mistakes but to prevent crime. If the crime has been committed, it’s not for the committee members to handle”, said Mwanza.
Meanwhile efforts to get information from the spokesperson proved futile by press time.
