Delinquent drug administration

TIB's report on the state of the country's drug administration presents a dismal picture of the way the Director General Drug Administration (DGDA) is being run. We are not prepared to believe that the pervading corruption in the organisation has occured overnight. May we ask why the DG has not taken measures to stop the malpractices knowing that some DGDA staff members have been engaged in all manners of malpractices?

Part of blame devolves on the ministry of health too for what the drug administration has come to represent -- a den of corruption -- for lax supervision. It must not be lost upon the ministry that the drug administration is not like any other directorate. Any lapse in implementation of rules and orders or instruction related to the drug sector has far-reaching impact on the lives of millions in the short and long term.

By allowing fake and spurious drugs to be produced and marketed the conniving officials of the DGDA and the errant drug producers have put the state of the nation's health at serious risk. No further delay can be brooked in arresting the situation. The relevant ordinances and rules are dated and need updating but that should not have required a TIB report for the ministry to wake up to such gross malfeasant activities of the DGDA. Its manpower shortage should be immediately made up. And last but not the least, the spurious drug producers and those who have put our health at serious risk deliberately in collusion with them must be made examples of.