No oversight of seized drugs

“No inspectors were available to verify and destroy police narcotic exhibits for the years 2015 and 2016. This has been an ongoing problem for the last few years,” the report said.

The entire country is served by a Drug Inspectorate of just four pharmacists.

Under the Dangerous Drugs Act, the inspectorate monitors the movement of narcotics and psychotropic substances used for legitimate.

The unit’s 14 duties include inspecting stocks at pharmacies and institutions such as nursing homes and private hospitals, monitoring precursor chemicals, and destroying illegal drugs seized by the police.

The report said that despite a “critical staff shortage” the inspectorate had generally met all but two of its duties, namely the inspection of pharmacies and institutions, and secondly the destruction of police narcotic exhibits.

“Despite the absence of regulations and our critical staff shortage, most of our responsibilities with respect to controlling and monitoring of precursor chemicals have been met,” “However, activities such as visiting factories and chemical distributors to inspect stocks, usage and records, monitoring the movement of precursor chemicals out of the country, and maintaining a database on precursor chemicals have not been done.” The report said the inspectorate’s ideal or established strength is 11 pharmacists of whom eight should be inspectors, but poor pay-packs make it hard to attract staff and resulted in a staff of just four pharmacists.

“In recent years, the Drug Inspectorate has lost a significant number of pharmacists through attrition, voluntary retirement and resignation. This has resulted in a severely short-staffed department with only four (4) inspectors and no junior pharmacists.” Succession planning has been poor.

“The present staffing constraints have resulted in the inability of the department to perform some of its critical functions efficiently and effectively, and has negatively impacted several of the core activities of this department.” In addition to the inspectorate’s poor monitoring of seized drugs, other areas of constraint were highlighted.

“The last decade has seen a rising trend in the incidence of unregistered and counterfeit narcotics being offered for sale at private pharmacies. This has been difficult to monitor and control due to the current staff constraints and consequent reduction in inspections.” The inspectorate could not keep up with the requirement to inspect public and private pharmacies, largely due to an increased service provided by public health pharmacies.

“General inspection audits of private and public pharmacies have declined considerably.” This constraint itself has hurt pharmacy practices.

“It has been noted by the inspectors that standards of practice, including record keeping, for pharmacies and pharmacists in the private sector are on the decline. This can in part be attributed to the infrequency of routine inspections by the Drug Inspectorate, which adversely affects the department’s ability to adequately monitor the use of narcotics in the country.” Otherwise the report said that for 2015, some 96 applications were approved to import narcotics, while 445 licences were issued to sell and distribute narcotics.

For 2016, the inspectorate granted 95 import licences, and 452 licences to sell and distribute.