ABSTRACT In order for managers to make sound management decisions in any organization they need to have and use

information. Management Information Systems (MIS) are the means through which managers are able to access information from various sources for use in decision making. Similarly, Logistics Management Information Systems (LMIS) in Supply Chain Management of commodities is the means by which commodity information is captured, analysed and transmitted for decision making. The value and quality of decisions made out of such information depends on the quality of the information presented to the managers. In the Malawi public health commodity supply chain system such LMIS information constitutes monthly opening balances, receipts, issues, losses and physical stock balance for all supplies utilised at a health facility. This is manually reported through what are called Logistics Management Information Systems (LMIS) Reports from all health facilities to both the central Ministry of Health (MOH) and its constituent Central Medical Stores (CMS). There have been several complaints from the MOH, CMS, government of Malawi (GoM) partners and donors that the Malawi LMIS Reports are always inaccurate. This has been evidenced in several GoM and donor reports. The inaccuracy is in such a way that the reports do not reflect the true picture of all the commodity transactions that occur at the health facilities. This research report is on the exploratory study conducted to find out what causes the problem and what can be done in order to resolve the problem. A quantitative and qualitative questionnaire survey for a cross sectional convenience sample composed of MOH LMIS Reports producers, LMIS Reports users, MOH central level logistics managers, USAID independent contractor and consultant on public health commodity supply chain management and LMIS, and Independent International Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) Pharmacists was conducted in order to seek their views and opinions on what they individually think causes the problem. The results from both the quantitative and qualitative study clearly show that the problem is mainly caused by human resource issues in the government system such as lack of adequate and appropriate human resources to manage the LMIS reporting which has led to too much workload on the non-health commodities supply chain

management specialist staff such as nurses and medical assistants available at the facilities. It has equally revealed that lack of adequate training to the current staff managing the health commodities and lack of capacity within the MOH system to actively supervise the health facilities on LMIS reporting also mainly contributes to the problem. The LMIS Reports design and functionality also contribute to the problem but they have been regarded as a minor issue. In Malawi there hasnt been research on the LMIS and LMIS Reports in particular. This research paper will provide useful knowledge and insights to MOH and USAID Deliver Project contractor John Snow Incorporated (JSI) who are working on improving LMIS and supply chain interventions in the public health commodity supply chains not only in Malawi but also in other developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The major recommendations and conclusions drawn from the study are that the MOH needs to put a lot of emphasis on increasing human resource capacity for managing the supply chain for the public health commodities in order to address this and other supply chain issues. The other major factors that require addressing are the need for adequate training and active supervision of staff currently managing the health commodities. LMIS reports design and functionality also remains an issue requiring looking into even though it is a minor issue as compared to human resource, training and supervision issues. It is highly recommended that the MOH takes serious action to implement the recommendations in this report in order to improve the current situation on the problem.