Health Ministry Officials Disciplined After State Audit Reveals Major Violations

Officials from Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Health and its subordinate agencies have been disciplined following a state audit, Orda.kz reports.

The head of SK-Pharmacy, the company responsible for centralized medicine procurement, has also been dismissed.

According to the Supreme Audit Chamber, disciplinary measures were taken against:

• Directors of the Departments of Drug Policy and Pharmaceutical Industry Development of the Ministry of Health
  
• The Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Human Resources
  
• The Director of the Scientific Center for Anti-Infectious Drugs
  
• The Deputy Director General of the National Center for Medicines Expertise
  
• The Deputy Chairperson of the Salidat Kairbekova National Center for Healthcare Development

Audit Findings

SAC Chair Alikhan Smailov presented the audit results to parliament in June. The inspection revealed that over three years, 164 medications were not purchased, 67,000 expired drugs were distributed, and total losses and ineffective spending amounted to over 90 billion tenge.

After the violations were uncovered, the Ministry of Health initially considered challenging the audit results in court, arguing that the findings lacked sufficient evidence.

However, the ministry later dropped the idea and settled the issue through internal discussions.

We held several working discussions with the Chair of the Supreme Arbitration Court on issues where previously acknowledged violations were included in the new report. There is a preliminary agreement that we will discuss and work through these unresolved issues without going to court,
 explained Minister of Health Akmaral Alnazarova at the time.

Original Author: Zarina Fayzulina