The Editor Zambia
The wholesale separation of all 150 employees at the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA) is one of the clearest demonstrations yet that the United Party for National Development (UPND) New Dawn administration under President Hakainde Hichilema is prepared to take painful decisions when public institutions fail in their most basic responsibility to citizens.
This is not merely an administrative reshuffle but a fundamental attempt to clean up an institution entrusted with one of the most sensitive responsibilities in the country: ensuring that medicines purchased with public money reach hospitals and health centres where sick Zambians depend on them. 
Health Minister Professor Roma Chilengi says the decision follows years of problems, complaints from stakeholders, and a forensic audit commissioned through the Office of the Auditor General.
The audit reportedly uncovered serious weaknesses throughout the medicines supply chain, including procurement, warehousing, and distribution.
Among the findings were alleged irregular procurements at inflated prices, unaccounted-for stock, missing system records, and diversion of medicines intended for public health facilities.
Those are not minor administrative shortcomings. They strike at the heart of public confidence.
When medicines disappear from a public supply chain, the consequences are potentially measured not merely in kwacha but in human lives. When procurement is allegedly inflated, taxpayers pay more. When stock cannot be accounted for, somebody must explain where it went. And, when medicines intended for public hospitals are allegedly diverted, the victims are ordinary Zambians who have no alternative but to depend on the public health system.
The government’s response therefore sends an unmistakable message: public institutions cannot be treated as private fiefdoms where inefficiency, impunity, or questionable practices are allowed to become entrenched.
This is where the ZAMMSA decision represents a sharp contrast with the governance culture that characterised much of the Patriotic Front (PF) era.
Auditor General reports from that period repeatedly documented failures to follow procurement procedures and other weaknesses in the management of public resources.
For example, the Auditor General’s 2021 report identified procurement irregularities involving several institutions and warned that failures to follow procurement procedures could result in goods and services being obtained at uncompetitive prices.
The lesson from that period is that corruption and weak controls can become institutionalised when those responsible believe that nothing serious will happen to them.
President Hichilema’s administration has spent much of its first term attempting to repair institutions, strengthen financial controls, and restore confidence in public administration.
The ZAMMSA action demonstrates that this process is continuing into the second term.
Importantly, the government has not simply announced the dismissal of the workforce and walked away.
Prof. Chilengi says an interim management team has been installed and that the Ministry will work with cooperating partners and logistics providers to ensure medicines continue reaching health facilities. The separated employees are also expected to receive their lawful entitlements, while vacancies under a leaner structure will be advertised openly.
That approach matters because fighting corruption cannot mean abandoning due process. It means combining accountability with lawful administrative action and rebuilding institutions on stronger foundations.
The Office of the Auditor General itself describes forensic auditing as a mechanism for addressing issues including asset misappropriation, procurement fraud, corruption, and other abuses of public resources, with evidence potentially passed to law -enforcement agencies.
ZAMMSA should, therefore, be only the beginning of a broader culture of accountability.
The real test will be whether the audit findings are followed wherever the evidence leads. If individuals are found to have deliberately abused public resources, appropriate investigative and legal processes should follow. Equally, innocent employees should not be condemned merely by association.
The New Dawn’s strongest argument against the failures inherited from the past is not political rhetoric. It is action.
Cleaning up ZAMMSA will not restore public confidence overnight. But confronting systemic failures instead of protecting them is precisely how credible institutions are rebuilt.
For years, Zambians have demanded that public resources be protected and that corruption should cease being treated as an unavoidable feature of government.
The ZAMMSA reset provides a powerful answer: where public institutions fail the people, the government is prepared to dismantle what is not working and rebuild it.
