President Samia places bet on private sector technocrats to turnaround beleaguered MSD

Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has turned to the private sector in her bid to turnaround the ailing Medical Stores Department (MSD) currently reeling under the weight of mismanagement and corruption.

Friday’s appointment of a new board chairman and the CEO has come amid shocking revelations of the rot at the beleaguered MSD by the Controller and Auditor General’s report for 2020/2021 financial year.

President Samia tapped Mr Mavere Ali Tukai from USAID to be the incoming CEO and Ms Rosemary William Silaa of PricewaterhouseCoopers as board chairperson in tactful changes announced as she embarked on an official visit to the USA.   

The Head of State dropped Major General Gabriel Saul Mhidze who was a month shy to two years in the position to which he was appointed by former President John Magufuli in 2020.

He initially headed the Lugalo Military Hospital in Dar es Salaam.       

President Samia has placed her bet on the two young private sector technocrats in changes she had hinted only two weeks ago while rooting for an overhaul of the state corporation.  

The director of the Presidential Communications Zuhura Yunus said from Washington DC, that Mr Tukai and Ms Silaa’s appointments takes immediate effect. Mr Tukai is a pharmaceutical supply chain expert while Ms Silaa is a procurement and supply chain expert.

The MSD has had frequent changes at the top, including charging of a former director general and other senior managers with capital offence as President Samia’s predecessor who died in March 2021 sought to fix the ailing entity.

The latest changes are also seen in the same light, with the CAG pointing to continued gross mismanagement at MSD over his recent audits.

The CAG, among other things, revealed some Sh14 billion meant for critical medical supplies had been withheld for a year as hospitals struggled to deliver medical care to patients across the country.  

Members of Parliament this week also piled the pressure on the drugs agency for what they said was embezzlement of public funds through exaggerated drugs and medical equipment supply contracts captured in the CAG reports.

It will remain to be seen how the new top leaders appointed by the President act to steady the ship. Analysts and commentators on social media, however, noted that their expertise was a clear message from the President where she wanted them to focus on.

Mavere Ali Tukai    

Prior to his appointment, Mavere was Chief of Party for the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Technical Assistance Program (GHSC TATZ), providing overall leadership in support to the Government of Tanzania technical assistance to strengthen health supply chain system.

He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences, which he attained in 1999 before heading on to pursue Master of Sciences in Pharmaceutical Services and Medicines Control at the University of Bradford, United Kingdom.

As a pharmacist, Mavere has experience in both local and international programs on health systems, pharmaceutical management, supply chains management, performance monitoring and reforms.

Professionally, he is licensed in Tanzania, he is pharmaceutical management system expert acquired through MSc Course in Pharmaceutical Services and Medicines Control and a Procurement and Supply Management (PSM) professional registered under the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supplies (CIPS), UK with over 17 years of hands-on experience.

His resume show that since 2003, he has been providing leadership, operational oversight and technical guidance to developing countries’ supply chain management systems with special focus on assessing, reviewing, developing strategic plans, business plans and monitoring the implementation of supply chain interventions.

 In addition, Mavere has been heavily involved in supporting US Government funded  multimillion Dollars supply chain programs that aimed at strengthening pharmaceutical management and supply chain systems, governance and supporting countries’ health systems to assume the supply chain leadership role as expected.

At global level, between 2011 and 2016, he was a lead person in supply chain strategies, programmatic and operational technical assistance for the USAID funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) based in Washington DC.

Ms Rosemary William Silaa

Ms Silaa is a qualified pharmacists and consultant who has previously worked as director access and system strengthening program at Clinton Foundation

As a Public Health expert with vast experience in Pharmaceutical, Procurement and Supply Chain management, she holder of Masters in Business Administration, Bachelor of Pharmacy and Advance diploma in purchasing and supply.

She has worked with Tanzanian health sector across different levels of service provision and policy level.

Why the overhaul?

On March 30, while receiving the CAG’s report, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the Medical Stores department’s structure needed a complete overhaul for it to be functional.

According to her MSD had failed to deliver on the contract that was signed to supply medicine and equipment to the SADCC countries.

She went on to say that SADC still believes in Tanzania and they still want to give MSD the tender to supply medicine and medical equipment in the region.

The CAG's report 2020/2021, showed that MSD failed by 66 percent to meet the needs of its customers.

"As of June 30, 2021 the MSD had only delivered 34 percent out of the total of 43,180 products, ordered by customers leaving 66 percent unfulfilled," says the report.

In 2018, the Medical Stores Department (MSD) signed an agreement to be a major seller of medicines, medical and laboratory equipment in 16 member states of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

With the signing of the contract, MSD was tasked with nine major responsibilities, including receiving orders from 16 SADC countries, administering statistics and information as needed, administering the database, and monitoring the buying process.