Zambia Cannot Verify K290 Million in Medical Supplies, Minister Tells MPs

Zambia's health minister told parliament on 16 October 2026 that 4,096 shipments had disappeared from the warehouse management system of the state medicines agency, while 3.34 million units of medicines and medical supplies valued at approximately K290 million could not be verified. These are findings attributed to a forensic audit, not proof that every shipment was physically stolen or that the entire valuation was a final financial loss.

The statement appears in the National Assembly's official sitting record. Health Minister Roma Chilengi said the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA) faced failures spanning procurement, warehousing, distribution and electronic recordkeeping. The forensic audit was commissioned in late 2024, he said. The underlying forensic audit and detailed case schedules were not attached to the parliamentary record.

The minister also said contracts worth K1.4 billion were awarded despite internal audit objections; some prices were inflated by as much as 1,613%; K42 million in distribution discrepancies had never been investigated; and an unregistered supplier was awarded a K16.1 million contract. The K1.4 billion is the face value of contracts the minister said were awarded despite objections, **not a proven sum stolen**. The K290 million is a value assigned to stock that could not be verified, **not a judicial determination of loss**.

Chilengi said original procurement files were missing or incomplete, and electronic records showed evidence of deliberate deletion. He reported that law-enforcement investigations had resulted in some arrests, with others ongoing, without identifying in the statement the individual criminal cases, final court outcomes, affected supplier IDs or contract-by-contract payment amounts. A criminal conviction should not be inferred.

What a separate national audit established

The Auditor General's report on Zambia's 2024 public accounts, pages 156–158, independently documents earlier ZAMMSA-related distribution-control problems. Drugs and medical supplies costing K587,781 that ZAMMSA dispatched had not been delivered to six facilities in Western Province as of 31 July 2025. Seven stations received short-shelf-life medicines and laboratory supplies valued at K2,102,410, some of which expired before use. At three other stations, supplies worth K1,815,303 lacked disposal and stock records showing how and where they were used.

These findings concern different transactions, audit periods and categories from the October 2026 forensic figures. The amounts should not be added together or treated as evidence of the same shipments, suppliers or alleged misconduct. The earlier audit does not establish why the 4,096 shipments disappeared from the electronic system.

Contemporaneous reporting by the Times of Zambia also gave the 4,096 shipment figure and K290 million valuation. Other news accounts gave 4,996; the published National Assembly record says **4,096**, which is the figure used here until the original forensic audit reconciles the difference.

Government response and unresolved questions

The minister said the government had dissolved ZAMMSA's board, removed senior officials and begun a restructuring. He described plans for an end-to-end digital tracking system, new management and separation of procurement from warehousing and last-mile distribution. Those are announced measures, not independently measured proof of improved availability or resolved discrepancies.

Chilengi said the annual medicines-and-supplies allocation increased from K1.6 billion in 2021 to K6.4 billion in 2026. Allocated budgets are not the same as amounts spent, goods delivered or losses recovered. He also said the government intended to maintain medicine distribution during the transition.

The next verifiable steps are publication of the full forensic audit, shipment and stock reconciliations, original procurement and supplier identifiers, the baseline used to calculate the claimed 1,613% price inflation, formal dispositions of the K42 million discrepancies, and the status of investigations and any court proceedings. Until those records are available, individual culpability, the cause of every record discrepancy and final losses remain unresolved.