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Govt. currently without pre-qualified drug suppliers
…sole sourcing permitted under certain circumstances–Dr Roger Luncheon
By Gary Eleazar
The timeframe for which bidders who were pre-qualified to supply drugs to the Ministry of Health, has expired but
New GPC’s Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop
Government is still to complete evaluation of potential new suppliers.
This was confirmed by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, who following his post Cabinet Press briefing yesterday, said that all new contracts would have to await the results of the current process of vetting suppliers to be prequalified.
In the absence of that, any procurement of drugs and medical supplies would have to go to a public tender.
According to Dr Luncheon, given the current situation, he is certain that Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, is working with alacrity to ensure that the pre-qualification process is completed as soon as possible.
Asked about the abandonment of the practice of resorting to sole sourcing, Dr. Luncheon said that the law cannot be abandoned.
He reminded that sole sourcing is permitted in law under certain circumstances.
Under the Public Procurement Act, the procuring entity may engage in single-source procurement when the goods or construction are available only from a particular supplier or contractor.
It is also applied when a particular supplier or contractor has exclusive rights with respect to the goods or construction, and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists.
Meanwhile, under the revised criteria for the pre-qualification of suppliers of drugs and medical supplies the bidders must demonstrate a gross turnover of $1B (US$5M) and net assets of $500M (US$2.5M).
One of the Ministry’s criteria is that maximum score will be awarded to applicants who have paid $50M in corporate taxes annually.
The company with 50 or more employees, and warehousing capacity of 30,000 square feet in the city, will also gain an edge.
New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (GPC) is owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s best friend and is the only supplier, locally, with its own bond of that size.
According to the revised prequalification criteria, maximum points will also be awarded in the evaluation process to the applicants who have been supplying Government for more than seven years without any negative reports.
Opposition Leader Brigadier (rtd), David Granger, has criticized the set criteria saying that what the Ministry has done is to devise tailor-made criteria meant to negate other competitors so that New GPC will be used as the sole supplier of drugs.
The Opposition Leader conceded that the National Assembly would be unable to prevent the implementation of this strategy, given that it is a Ministerial Order.
He did say that with the coming into being of the Public Procurement Commission what they might be able to do is address procurement at that time.
Granger’s sentiments came on the heels of criticism of the pre-qualification criteria by Alliance for Change (AFC) Leader Khemraj Ramjattan.
Ramjattan, in an earlier interview, had said, “Could you imagine the resultant impoverishment of the treasury and corresponding enrichment to New GPC! This is bloody larceny, but in the eyes of past and present PPP administrations it is economics. The little boy who picks your pocket for a $2,000 would have to go to jail.
“But this big company will be extolled as virtuous when over $2B is what it profits in a roughly similar activity.”
With billions of taxpayers’ dollars at stake, independent suppliers and the Opposition have time and again been accusing Government of favouring New GPC, a company whose principal, Bobby Ramroop, shares close ties with former President Jagdeo.
The company has been benefiting from billions of dollars annually, controlling supplies of up to 80 per cent of the drugs purchased by the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the Ministry of Health.
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