Four National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm) board
members were yesterday arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission
(Zacc) on allegations of abuse of office.
The arrested board members are: Dr Billy Rugava, Advocate
Racheal Chibaya, Dr Johnson Shonhe and Dr Harunavamwe Chifamba.
Zacc spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure confirmed the
arrests last night and said they should appear in court today. But he declined
to outline the allegations they are facing.
In June, three former top NatPharm bosses appeared in court
facing allegations of approving Drax International LLC to supply and deliver
medicines and surgical sundries to Government without following procurement
procedures. Florah Nancy Sifeku (67), Charles Mwaramba (78) and Rolland Mlalazi
(55), have since appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Courts charged with
criminal abuse of office.
Sifeku was the NatPharm managing director, Mlalazi was the
finance manager while Mwaramba was the operations manager. They were all not
asked to plead to the charges when they separately appeared before magistrate
Ms Vongai Guriro, and were remanded out of custody on $10 000 bail each.
Sifeku and Mwaramba are jointly charged on one of the
offences where the State alleges that sometime in December 2019, the Permanent
Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Care gave a directive to NatPharm
to issue a tender. Drax Consult SAGL had written a letter of interest to supply
Zimbabwe with medicine and surgical sundries under a US$20 million facility.
Allegations are that Sifeku and Mwaramba allegedly
disregarded the Permanent Secretary’s directive and went on to award a direct
purchase to Drax Consult SAGL, saying there was extreme
emergency. Sifeku and Mwaramba are alleged to have
fast-tracked the awarding of the order to Drax Consult SAGL to supply the
medicines and surgical sundries.
The duo allegedly withheld the tender documents for a
month, while they were processing another tender for the same company.
Sifeku and Mwaramba are alleged to have used the two
tenders to award and sign a contract for Drax Consult SAGL under the credit
facility of US$20 million to supply medicines and surgical sundries.
After realising that Drax Consult SAGL had failed to supply
the medicine and sundries within three months as stated by the agreed contract,
Sifeku and Mwaramba allegedly deliberately failed to cancel the contract for
non-performance.
On another matter in which Sifeku and Mlalazi are jointly
charged, the State alleges that sometime early this year, former Health
Minister Obadiah Moyo was approached by Delish Nguwaya and Ilir Dedja, who
introduced themselves to him as Drax International LLC’s country representative
and legal representative.
Nguwaya and Dedja are said to have tendered an expression
of interest, saying their company could supply medicines to Zimbabwe through a
US$40 million facility.
The State alleges that knowing that Drax International LLC
had changed its name to Drax Consult SAGL and previously known as Papi Pharma
and had also failed the vetting, Sifeku and Mlalazi went on to offer it another
tender to supply US$13 351 071 worth of medicines.
On April 9, 2020, Secretary for Finance Mr George
Guvamatanga wrote a letter to Dr Mahomva after noting that Sifeku and Mlalazi
had entered into an agreement with Drax International LLC.
The following day, Dr Mahomva responded to the letter
saying the ministry had not given NatPharm the greenlight to sign the contract.
Acting on the contract, Drax International LLC is said to
have supplied 3 740 coveralls, CatIII type 6B worth US$336 600, 5 040 masks
worth US$141 120 and 15 000 test kits for US$510 000.
In another case where Sifeku is appearing on her own, the
State alleges that sometime in March 2019, Minister Moyo was approached by
Nguwaya with a letter of interest to supply the country with medicines through
a US$15 million facility.
Minister Moyo is said to have referred the letter to the
former permanent secretary Dr Gerald Gwinji.
On April 11, 2019, Dr Gwinji is said to have written to
Sifeku recommending NatPharm to work with 65 product lines of medicines worth
US$9,4 million and negotiate the prices downwards.
In the same letter, NatPharm was directed to come up with
comparative international prices for the products and apply for necessary
waiver from the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.
Sifeku, without drawing the comparative international price
schedule and waiting for due vetting process for PAPI Pharma, allegedly went on
to sign the agreement to supply medicines worth US$6 306 115. Herald
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