By Mulengera Reporters
Acting on whistle blower information, alleging existence of top leadership intrigue, the IGG has intervened into top leadership disagreements at National Drug Authority (NDA) by writing a memo halting the inauguration of the newly reappointed board that was supposed to take place on Monday at a hotel in Kampala.
The IGG asserts that there is conflict of interest impacting some of the board members and also aspects of procedural noncompliance in the way the reappointments were effected. The IGG points out that many of the entities from which NDA’s 20 board members are sourced, weren’t consulted. That there was no cabinet approval besides the absence of the certificate of financial compliance from the Finance Ministry.
The memo also shows that the inauguration of the new board should be halted until the IGG completes investigations into whistle blower allegations that the mandatory security vetting by Interpol was not attached to authenticate the reappointments.
The IGG is also investigating claims that the board chairman Dr. Medard Bitekyerezo and Dr. Muhammed Mbabali, who represents Uganda Dental Association, have served for too long. They have each served for three terms, each of three years and the IGG has accepted the whistle blower’s demands that this too should be inquired into.
The Inspectorate of Government is also investigating alleged equivocation between the mandate of both the NDA board on one hand and that of the NDA Commission on the other. Some aggrieved board members have anonymously been petitioning and complaining to both the IGG and the Solicitor General seeking for their intervention to guide on the legal propriety of such arrangements.
IGG investigators are construing the ‘NDA Commission’ as an act of usurpation of the powers of the larger board. Some board members claim that the Chairman Dr. Biteks uses the ‘NDA Commission’ to circumvent them each time he fails to convince them on the making of certain decisions.
Knowledgeable sources say that the ongoing IGG investigations will result into recommendations being made calling for the expeditious completion of the amendment process to the NDA Act, a process that has repeatedly been getting bogged down over the last 10 years.
The IGG is also investigating the extent to which the proposed amendments can permanently cure glaring conflict of interest, which the whistle blower manifested in the fact that Dr. Biteks chairs NDA, a regulatory agency which clears all importation and manufacturing of medicines and other medical supplies into the country, yet he at the same time holds a position on the Uganda Country Coordinating Mechanism under Global Fund.
These are licensees and clients who NDA is supposed to regulate. The IGG has also justified the halting of the board inauguration on grounds that the Inspectorate needs time to look into whistle blower claims that its problematic for the Executive Director of Joint Medical Stores (JMS), a licensee regulated by the Authority, to be part of the NDA board.
That there is also need to investigate claims that no security vetting and clearance by Interpol was undertaken. The whistle blower also claimed that the entities supposed to nominate members to the board hadn’t been consulted, something that the IGG needs to verify before the reappointed board members can take oath to commence business.
The IGG letter indicates that the Inspectorate has powers under Article 230 to investigate, look into such reappointments and to even go ahead to halt the swearing-in ceremony for the newly reappointed board members, similar to what NDA has organized to take place in Kampala on Monday.
Established in the early 1990s under the relevant Act of Parliament, NDA is mandated to approve and authorize the manufacturing from within the country or the importing of all manner of medicines into Uganda. Under rationalization of all government agencies, it had been proposed that NDA does more work including the regulation of food processes, animal or veterinary medicines and the cosmetics too. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
