Step in right direction

Thursday 2nd November, 2023

The appointment of Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama as Chairman of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) has gladdened many a heart. He has earned appreciation and admiration of his peers and the public alike as an excellent physician, and he will have to prove that he is equally good as an administrator.

Straightening up the NMRA, which has come under a cloud, will go a long way towards ridding the Health Ministry of bribery and corruption. Health Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, however, has his work cut out to achieve that goal, given the power of the sinister forces he has taken on, but he can rest assured that the right-thinking public is on his side.

Dr. Wijewickrama will not be able to accomplish the task of eliminating mega pharmaceutical rackets single-handedly. These sordid operations involve billions of dollars, and influential persons benefit from them; among them are moneybags with immense lobbying power and some powerful politicians. This unholy alliance is bound to resist all attempts to ensure transparency in the procurement and quality evaluation processes. In this country, the corrupt usually have the last laugh. Hence, there is a need for the public, civil society organisations, the media and the Opposition to join the battle against the health sector corruption.

Meanwhile, an investigation has got underway into a pharmaceutical racket, and the CID has arrested the owner of a drug company which imported a stock of intravenous immunoglobulin found to be substandard. The Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court has imposed an overseas travel ban on the company owner in custody and two doctors attached to the NMRA and the Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry.

Legal action must be taken against all those who are suspected of being involved in various rackets in the health sector and elsewhere. Their assets as well as those of their kith and kin should be probed to ascertain whether they have amassed any ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the public, especially the sick. What has stood in the way of ensuring that racketeers who are enriching themselves by endangering the lives of patients pay for their sins is not a lack of legal provisions to combat bribery and corruption but the absence of political will.

A sub-committee of the COPA (Committee on Public Accounts) has held the Health Ministry responsible for the ruination of the state health service. One could not agree more. The Health Minister has to take responsibility for what the Health Ministry does or does not, and the aforesaid COPA pronouncement therefore is tantamount to a damning indictment of all those who voted against the motion of no confidence the Opposition moved in September against the then Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. Interestingly, some COPA members were among those who defended Rambukwella vis-à-vis the Opposition’s attempt to oust him.

There is no way the Health Ministry bigwigs can absolve themselves of the blame for the deterioration of the health service. There are various allegations against them, and the health sector trade unions are demanding a probe. If these officials are allowed to remain in their positions, public trust in the state health sector will continue to erode, and they will be able to cover their tracks so that investigations into their corrupt deals will yield no results. They must be removed immediately. Some of them in fact deserve to be interdicted. Will Minister Pathirana get cracking?