PAC inquiry report to be tabled

The Public Accounts Committee inquiry into the procurement and distribution of drugs in the country will be ready to go to Parliament in the next sitting.

Chairman of Parliamentary PAC Sir John Pundari said, the committee has gone through the final draft report and will finalize it in the coming weeks before it is presented.

Since November of last year the Parliamentary Committee has been providing a check and balance into the Health Department’s procuring and distribution of drugs in the country.

This report will be tabled on the 25th of August during Parliament sitting.

This follows numerous reoccurring reports of the shortages of drugs and medicines in hospitals, clinics and aid posts despite millions of public monies pumped into the procurement and distribution of drugs.

Sir John Pundari said based on this inquiry, the Committee identified many problems and failures within the health system.

“Findings have been alarming. With a lot of lives being lost, a lot of facilities short of medicines. This is something that the country should not have experienced. ”

He added the Committee has made recommendations to correct this and hopes the Parliament can find a solution.

“The facts speaks for itself, our systems have failed our people. We need to correct our systems, we need to ensure that our systems are more accountable and more transparent.

“The system that we have recommended has to give solution that ensures that repetition of our mistakes in the past, where there have been shortage of drugs and facilities being closed down, health workers  going off work.

Hopefully the Parliament at the back of the report will find a permanent solution going forward”, he added.

The committee has also concluded inquiries into the old parliament house and will also summon the Education Department to appear before the committee, in three weeks’ time.

   

Author: 
Jemimah Sukbat