The Auditor General’s report presented to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament proved that the Food and Drugs Authority has kept some unregistered drugs in their canteen.
According to the report, 817 unregistered drugs kept at the canteen have been reported to have been missing or pilfered.
C.E.O of the Food and Drugs Authority, Mimi Darko, told the committee that the FDA does not have an available storage facility to keep the drugs, adding that storing the drugs in the canteen is a better choice.
‘’The canteen in which we stored the medicines is much better than a warehouse. We have a problem with space on our premises and the only available space was the canteen…We know the temperature and conditions under which we stored the medicines…We are the best people to determine how long we store them, what we store them for and the effects of storing them there.
"We don’t store the medicines long enough for its quality to be affected," she detailed.
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament headed by Dr James Klutse Avedzi has commenced a two-week public hearing to consider financial infractions and performance audits of the Food and Drugs Authority and other agencies.
About the audit report
FDA has uncovered three giant Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies imported three brand of medicines; Oxytocin, Ecogormetrine and Quinine injections which according to the authority when given to women will fail to control bleeding after child birth as well as death.
Also a study carried out by professor Ofori-Kwakye and Mariam El-Dua found that 14 out of 17 sampled Artesunate tablets sold in pharmacies in Kumasi failed to meet European pharmacopeia content requirements.
The auditor-general per his mandate conducted a performance audit into the activities of the FDA.
The reason for the audit was to find out whether measures put in place by FDA to regulate importation and manufacture of medicines ensure that medicines are safe and meet the required quality standards.
Food and Drugs Authority
Food and Drugs Committee is mandated by the Public Health Act (PHA) Act 851, 2012 to regulate medicines on the Ghanaian market to ensure they are safe and meet the required quality health standards.
FDA has the responsibility to licence, register, undertake post market activities, control importation and undertake quality assurance procedure on medicines.
