Upshot of wastage incident: USAID to help revamp vaccine storage system

To provide $1.5m technical support; eight EPI employees under probe

ISLAMABAD: In the wake of the recent vaccine wastage incident, USAID has extended technical support worth $1.5 million to the government for immediate reform of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) which has been a victim of chronic mismanagement for the last 27 years.

At the same time, eight EPI employees from director to low cadre officers have been removed from their positions or repatriated to their parent departments for negligence. This was after an inquiry committee tasked with probing the loss of pentavalent vaccines worth $1.3 million stored in federal EPI, found them guilty. The incident of vaccine wastage was reported this year in February and the inquiry is said to be still in progress.

The employees who have been suspended include EPI Deputy Programme Manager Dr Saveeta Vankwani, who is the wife of PML-N MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar and two officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) who have repatriated to their parent department. The case has been given to the FIA to probe into the matter for further investigation. Once FIA submits the report, further action is expected to be taken.

Talking to The Express Tribune a senior official in the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Regulation (NHSRC) on the condition of anonymity said the federal health ministry lacked competent people to address the sever mismanagement therefore had requested many of its international partners to help reforming the EPI on war footing.



But none of them came forward, except USAID who through its deliver project extended its technical support for reforming the EPI which will be completed within three months, said the official.

“The team of the USAID along with the EPI officials is working for revamping the vaccine storage and management system to make it state-of the art and at par with internationally accepted standards,” said the official.

The official further said that every year Pakistan receives life saving vaccines for children worth $450 million  from international donor agencies. However for the last 27 years a grade six officer was looking after them.

“Though it was the responsibility of the high officials to look after the maintenance of cold storage where vaccines worth of million rupees were stored but none of them fulfilled their duty,” he said.

The official further said the cold storage of the EPI seemed more like a fruit market where vaccine donated by the international donors were cluttered and no one knew which stock was received earlier and which later.

Meanwhile Saira Afzal Tarar, Federal Minister of State for NHSRC while briefing media on Thursday at EPI centre at Chak Shehzad termed the vaccine wastage incident as an eye opener for the government.

“Bad happens for good and this unfortunate incident has proven it as it helped us to know the shortcomings and to address the chronic mismanagement in vaccine storage and management system which could put lives of millions of children at stake,” she said.

Sharing the details, she said the entire team of EPI has been removed and the ministry has advertised 49 vacant posts to address the acute shortage of human resource.

From now on validated vaccine data of Pakistan can be accessed from anywhere in the world through web based LMIS system, EPI operations can be monitored online, international good practices including GS -1 Bar coding, scanning and stock sufficiency are going to be monitored daily, she said.

CCTV cameras have also been installed for strengthening the security of the cold rooms and dry stores, she said.

Tarar also expressed concern over the officials from international partner agencies who failed to prove their worth and expertise after joining the EPI.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2015.