ZANZIBAR Chief Pharmacist Habibu Ali Sharifu has called on pharmacists to be fair when discharging their duties by abiding by professional ethics in order to serve the public better.
Speaking at a training session involving staff of the institution at the Shekhe Idriss Abdul Wakil hall, he said unprincipled practices were unpleasant and contrary to their ethics.
He noted that some pharmacists had been exposed for being dishonest while dreaming of getting rich through fraud.
He expressed dismay over the mischief of some of them cheating and others selling drugs provided by the government for the benefit of the citizens.
“The purpose of this training is to encourage pharmacists to carry out their duties with respect to work ethics and to avoid all forms of corruption,” he said.
He pointed out that Zanzibar had increased the budget for medicine that will be distributed freely to its health facilities.
“The Ministry of Health budget for medicines has been increased from 23bn/- to 32bn/- with the aim of ensuring that citizens get medicine,” he said.
A trainer from the Medical Stores Department (MSD), Mr Ali Juma, explained that there was already a good system put in place to curb theft of medicine provided by the government.
However, he added that additional inspections were needed to ensure that the medicines were sent to health facilities and used appropriately.
“We have introduced a system for inspecting all medicine from MSD to various health facilities so as to verify that they are fully utilised and don’t end up in private hands,” he said.
A senior official from Zanzibar Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Authority (ZAECA), Abubakar Mohamed, said that they were well strategised to ensure that corruption in the public service was fully eradicated.
“Anti-corruption legislation is more focused on controlling corruption activities in areas that offer public services,” he said.
