By Mercy Matonga:
Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) has disclosed that the government owes the institution K76 billion, a situation it says is affecting its operations.
This was revealed Tuesday during a meeting between CMST officials and Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (Pac) members.
CMST Board Chairperson Moses Chisale said apart from facing foreign exchange challenges, district hospitals were failing to remit payment for medicines that were obtained on credit.
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“We have issues regarding payment. As of March 31, 2026, the government, through district hospitals, gets medicine from us but has yet to pay, which affects our procurement [processes] and [the] supply of drugs,” Chisale said.
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He added that CMST would continue engaging relevant stakeholders to ensure that outstanding funds are paid to help smooth the trust’s operations.
During the meeting, committee members also raised concern over K1.6 billion-worth of medical items that expired and were destroyed in 2022, with 60 percent comprising cancer and diabetes treatment supplies.
“Honourable Chairperson and your Committee, CMST acknowledges the expiry of K1.6 billion-worth of inventory in the year ending March 31, 2022. The items were across 37 categories, of which 60 percent—translating to K1 billion—was for two categories, oncology (cancer) and diabetes management. Twelve percent, translating to K196 million, was for surgical dressing and laboratory items while 19 percent, translating to K471 million, was spread across the remaining 33 categories,” Chisale said.
Chisale said engagements with Diabetes Association of Malawi around 2018 regarding the non-availability of diabetes management commodities informed the need to increase stock levels.
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He said in the absence of reliable baseline data and to avoid shortages, CMST estimated what it considered safe stock levels.
However, he said, the trust has since instituted measures to reduce cases of medical drugs expiring, notably shifting from a procure-to-stock model to a procure-to-deliver approach, where procurement is largely based on confirmed orders from health facilities for specialised and high-value items such as oncology medicines.
“For diabetes items and others, the Open Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) online initiative by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation— [which is used] for reporting and tracking demand—has enhanced quantification in subsequent years.
“This can be confirmed by continuously reducing expiry rates over the years, down to less than 1 percent (0.86 percent) in the 2024-25 financial year. In the 2025-26 financial year, the trust expects a rate [that is] even lower than 0.86 percent,” Chisale said.
Reacting to CMST’s performance report, Pac Chairperson Steve Malondera expressed dissatisfaction, saying most of the issues raised during the meeting had also been raised in previous committee sessions.
“We are very disappointed with [the issue pertaining to] the expiry of medical supplies while the country is facing shortages of drugs, especially for diseases such as cancer. We do not want to see this repeating itself,” Malondera said.
On the issue of non-remittance of funds by public hospitals, Malondera said the committee would engage the Treasury to explore ways of recovering the money.
“The K76 billion is a lot of money for a country like Malawi. This money is critical in ensuring the continued supply of medical commodities and we, as a committee, will engage the relevant authorities to recover it,” Malondera said.
CMST is a statutory body established by the Government of Malawi in 2010 to procure, store and distribute medicines and medical supplies to public health facilities across the country. It replaced the former Central Medical Stores, which operated under the Ministry of Health.
