The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has appealed to government to allow it to keep all its internally generated funds (IGF) or at least its service charges to improve on the financial status of the Authority to effectively deliver on its mandate.
Dr Delese Darko, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), FDA, who made the appeal at the Authority’s maiden stakeholder meeting on regulatory activities and 2022 Performance, in Accra, also called for improved conditions of service to help retain the highly trained staff of the Authority.
The purpose of the meeting was to update stakeholders on the Authority’s regulatory activities and 2022 achievements.
It formed part of the FDA’s performance monitoring indicators and targets instituted with the support of the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA).
The meeting created a platform for the Authority to engage with stakeholders, solicit stakeholder feedback on the Authority’s performance and suggest areas for improvement, as well as promote awareness and understanding of the Authority’s role in protecting public health and safety.
Evaluating the performance of the institution, the FDA presented the highlights of its 2022 performance, including product registration and facility licensing against its performance in 2021.
For instance, the Authority, said it recorded a 24 per cent increase in the number of facilities inspected to 9,829 in 2022 from 7,913 in 2021, while in the area of import and export controls, FDA’s operations increased by a significant margin of 36 per cent.
Other presentations made highlighted the number of street food vendors licensed with permits, FDA’s market surveillance activities and product quality testing done in 2022.
As part of the FDA’s mandate to advice the Health Minister on measures for the protection of consumer wellbeing, the Authority proposed some relevant amendments to parts 6,7 and 8 of the Public Health Act 851 and advocated for a standalone Act that will guide its operations.
The Authority said this was necessary because of changes in the regulatory space and to accommodate provisions from the Africa Union Model Law on Medical Products Regulation and other new and emerging international best practices.
The Authority also bemoaned inadequate vehicles and other logistics for inspections, ageing laboratory equipment and the absence of a module for processing exports on the ICUMS, amongst others.
Despite the challenges, the Authority chalked many successes in 2022 including the Centre for Laboratory Services and Research (CLSR) expansion of its ISO 17025:2017 accreditation to 58 from 48 tests, the accreditation of the Food Laboratory for the first time for five tests while the Drugs Laboratory of the CLSR achieved WHO GBT ML4 and was awarded a WHO-Prequalified Quality Control Laboratory (QCL) status.
This means that the results of analysis from this laboratory are acceptable globally.
Other achievements are; The FDA-Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) joint application system was operationalised to enable applicants to obtain the FDA registration and GSA certification simultaneously with a single application, the FDA opened new offices bringing its services closer to its clients and consumers by operationalising the Western North Regional Office in Sefwi Wiawso and two District Offices in the Central Region and the Authority in collaboration with ProPer Alliance, launched the ProPer Platform to enable consumers to verify the registration status of FDA regulated products and batch control of products.
Dr Darko assured stakeholders that the Authority was putting in measures to improve its regulatory processes.
Present at the meeting were members of the FDA Governing Board, and representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, GSA, Customs and the SIGA as well as some trade organisations.
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