Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has made an urgent call to the Ministry of Health to halt the procurement process of a 17 million US Dollars contract for the supply of health center kits to a company that did not exist according to records at the Patents and Companies’ Registration Agency (PACRA) for comprehensive investigations.

TIZ Executive Director Maurice Nyambe further challenged the Ministry to provide the public with full information on the matter in order to clarify the circumstances under which what appears to be a huge procurement anomaly was allowed to happen.

“Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) is extremely perturbed by the revelations in the 9th June 2020 edition of the News Diggers newspaper to the effect that the Zambian government, through the Ministry of Health last year awarded a US$17 million contract for the supply of health centre kits to a company that did not exist according to records at the Patents and Companies’ Registration Agency (PACRA),” he said in a statement.

Mr. Nyambe said the importance of all government entities adhering to all the Provisions of the Public Procurement Act of 2008 cannot be overemphasized as those provisions are meant to protect procurement processes from any undue influences that may result in improper conduct by any of the entities involved.

He further disclosed that TIZ wants want to call for a forensic audit of all public procurement at the Ministry of Health from 2011 to date.

“We want to call for a forensic audit of all public procurement at the Ministry of Health from 2011 to date. It is possible that this award of a contract could just be one of several other scandals at the Ministry of Health,” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from Ministry of Health Spokesperson Abel Kabalo failed as his mobile phone went unanswered.