Whichever way you look at it, the Molnupiravir recent scandal stinks in the nostrils of anyone who takes the time to understand the documents made public and the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary exchanges on the issue. But we should not miss the forest for the trees.

The supply of drugs to our hospitals is a Rs1 billion business yearly. No petty cash, is it? So when the checks and balances are gradually dropped, the floodgates to corruption start opening and the country turns into a feeding trough for the cronies.

A few weeks ago, in an interview in l’express*, Sarita Pulton, former principal pharmacist and registrar of the Pharmacy Board, explained to us that supplying drugs to our hospitals was in the past restricted exclusively to manufacturers that had “Good Manufacturing Practices certification (GMP) from the European Union Drug Regulatory Authorities, which says that they have the capacity to manufacture drugs according to European standards.” She explains that “a GMP tells us who has a good kitchen with the right equipment, the right operating procedures and the right cooks.” Today, just about any manufacturer is welcome to participate in the Ministry of Health tenders.

Worse perhaps is the fact that while Mauritius in the past dealt directly with the manufacturers or their accredited agent, today anyone is allowed to procure drugs from wholesalers. And the pharmacist concludes that “too often, generics from India are being supplied at higher prices than the innovator’s drug.”

If you find this shocking, price in the ‘emergency procurement’ that has become the norm rather than the exception it was supposed to be, and crown it all with the fact that the pharmacist for the procurement is also the one responsible for regulation and you have all the conditions necessary for potential malfeasance, corruption and robbery.

So the CPN scandal is not the first of its kind nor is likely to be the last. From Pack and Blister to the STC contracts, going through the drugstores/jewellers, birthday party organiser/dilwil dan zorey saga, it is the exact same story. So thank God for yet another happy coincidence and one more story: that of another crony who suddenly discovered his philanthropic streak and decided to ‘save lives’. How magnanimous! And he just happened to be sitting on a pile of unlicensed Molnupiravir tablets that correspond exactly to the order placed by the Health Ministry! That’s all it took and Rs80 million of our money was about to be – and will eventually be – transferred to adorn the accounts of the Johnny-come-lately CPN Distributors and replace the zero turnover it currently has, using the same abracadabra that perhaps resulted in Soopramanien Kistnen’s death.

This scandal is not about CPN Distributors; it is not about Rs80 million; it is not even about the fact that we should all start on a Molnupiravir diet for breakfast, lunch and dinner to be able to use up the stock before it expires. It is about the mechanisms put in place to ensure the beneficiaries’ smooth sailing towards enrichment. It starts with changing laws, sneaking in regulations, tailor-making tenders, giving licences here and withholding others there, making sure the Public Procurement Office’s deep slumber is not disturbed... And it ends with complaisant institutions that come to the rescue when the culprits are caught red-handed and make sure the file is safe in a deep drawer, allowing the speaker to ban any more discussion on the subject. And these happy stories end with the prime minister sending parliament on holiday and the matter is silenced for good. It is not a one-man show. It is an anthill crawling with pals sharing similar interests. Kistnen kicked over it. He is no longer here to tell the tale.

The Molnupiravir scandal is about a Mafia-like system that has been gangrening this country and which is becoming more and more audacious. More than the squandering of public funds; more than the unlicensed drugs we are paying through the nose for; more than the illicit enrichment of cronies, it is the Mafia system that allows all this to happen that we should be more worried about.

* https://www.lexpress.mu/node/401870