Pharmacy Board clears the air
The Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone (PBSL) over the weekend cleared the air regarding bad press geared towards bringing its hard work and reputation into disregard and malicious scandal, an action which the Acting Registrar of the Board has described unfortunate and deliberate after newsmen went to ascertain the truthfulness of reports carried out in the Press.
This reaction came in the wake of a story carried in the Peep Magazine of Friday November 6, captioned “Massive Malpractices at Pharmacy Board. Documents made available to the press from the Board and the National Revenue Authority proved the entire article to be fabricated with facts and figures mentioned turning out to be cooked-up and baseless.
The story asserted that a total of Le.1.2 billion was collected from licenses fees paid by Pharmacies, Drugs and Patent Medicines Stores which money according the publication has not been accounted for, labelling it as “the 419 tactics” employed by the current Registrar to rip business men of their hard earned monies for which no service is accorded them. Part of the money according to the article was collected in the name of conducting Continuous Professional Education (CPD) claiming that a total of Le. 200, 000 is collected from each pharmacist in the country for CPD which according to the writer is non existent.  Added to such claim is the assertion that for all the purported 1.2 billion Leones collected, all the Board could account for is “a single issue of newsletter and two Continuous Education Sessions”.
Contrary to the dismal claims carried by the Peep Magazine, documents showing a comprehensive analysis of the total licenses fees collected by the Board through the National Revenue Authority-NRA amounted to only Le 163, 561, 000 (one hundred and sixty three million, five hundred and sixty one million Leones) which money according the Finance Act of Sierra Leone went to NRA. So apart from the fact that the Le 1.2 billion is a cooked up affairs, documentary evidence also has it that licenses fees though collected at the Pharmacy Board is not kept by the Board but goes into the consolidated funds so, rather than having the board to account for the said money, NRA should have been contacted first if the writer actually wanted to do his job Acting Registrar WCN Johnson slammed at the reports.
Talking on assertion that said 1.2 billion Leones was collected from professional fees paid by Pharmacies, Drugs and Patent Medicines Stores, the Acting Registrar said “there again you see the malicious nature of the article, the writer could not even take his time to gather the facts, he should have learnt that professionals fees are only paid by Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians who operate only in Pharmacies and Drugs Stores where professionals are required by law and not patent medicines stores as the writer claimed”.
Speaking on claims made regarding the exorbitant nature of CPD fees collected by the Board, Johnson said “contrary to the 3,000 mentioned by the article, we have only 1,020 registered premises in the whole of the country and among those only 332 have paid for the CPD and only Le 200,000 is asked of, meaning you pay Le 50,000 per session and we go through four cycles each year”. The Registrar said “the newspaper says we are expensive and extorting monies from our professionals, check out the Scientific Education Sessions carried out by the medical and Dental Council, they pay Le 200,000 for each; so tell me if the thing was not done with malice how come that writer would afford to say we extort when we are most reasonable. Concerning the news letter, we don’t in anyway ask for Le 200,000. All practitioners and business people know that they pay Le 20,000 per edition and Le 60, 000 per year for the quarterly newsletter; how come they afford to say its Le 200,000; this is most unrealistic” he concluded.
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2009, https:. All rights reserved.
