Drug supply pre-qualification to New GPC… Ansa McAl to lodge formal complaint with Tender Board

Jul 26, 2014 News

“The only reason we applied is because we met the criteria, we would have never gone ahead if we didn’t,” — Managing Director Beverly Harper

Ansa McAl which has its parent company in Trinidad and Tobago will formally lodge a complaint with the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to find out how it failed to qualify for the Ministry of Health’s pre-qualification process to supply pharmaceuticals, according to Managing Director, Beverly Harper.

Ansa McAl Managing Director Beverly Harper

The Trinidadian conglomerate has raised questions about its exclusion from the drug supply pre- qualification. Harper said, yesterday afternoon, that the Georgetown office has been given clearance from Trinidad.
The complaint is being prepared by the legal team and is expected to be submitted by Monday, in keeping with the five-day rule by the NPTAB to submit a complaint.
Harper added that she had seen the criteria, and the company thought fully that it met those criteria. “We saw the criteria and we thought that we could have satisfied what was being asked for…
“We would have never applied if we didn’t think that we met the criteria.”
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon had said that the government chose New GPC as supplier because of the fear of counterfeit drugs.
Harper said that the remark could not be in reference to Ansa McAl.
None of the Ansa McAl storage facilities were checked during the evaluation process. The company has maintained that it has correct “cold storage” needed for certain drugs, Ms. Harper said.
On Tuesday, the Cabinet of Ministers approved New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (GPC), as the nation’s sole pre-qualified supplier of drugs to the Government.
New GPC is owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop who happens to be the best friend of former President, Bharrat Jagdeo. That company has been supplying the bulk of the drugs to Government for the past 15 years, ever since it was acquired by Ramroop in 1999.
Asked whether the decision to award New GPC was not tantamount to sole sourcing, given that the company would be the only one to get drug contracts, Dr. Luncheon disagreed.
He said that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) picked New GPC from among seven companies that applied to be pre-qualified.
“Our result was that, there is only one company that satisfied those requirements as far as NPTAB was concerned, and that was brought to Cabinet,” Luncheon explained.
When asked if the criteria used to pre-qualify a company were not biased in favour of New GPC, Luncheon said, “The criteria are biased in favour of safety.”
Luncheon was asked if New GPC was benefiting because of the relationship that the owner shares with Jagdeo.
In response, he pointed to the level of investment by New GPC. The pre-qualification criteria which was used to allow New GPC to be chosen, have been described by the Opposition as being “unreasonable” and tailor-made to have that company secure the status.
The previous list of companies that were pre-qualified to supply drugs expired since December. Prior to inviting submissions for another round of pre-qualification, Government revised the criteria.
This led to the accusations that the government was positioning New GPC to be the only company meeting the requirements to win out.
Under the revised criteria, bidders had to demonstrate a gross annual turnover of US$5 million and net assets of US$2.5 million.
Another criterion was that maximum score was to be awarded to applicants who would have paid $50M in Corporate taxes, annually.
Additionally, the company that has 50 or more employees, and warehousing capacity of 30,000 square feet in the city, will also gain an edge.
New GPC has been a feature in the Auditor General’s report over the years with several instances focused on multi-million-dollar deficiencies in the procurement and supply of drugs to Government. The purchase of drugs this year is expected to surpass the US$25M.
The purchases have been a major source of contention between Government and the Opposition for years now because of the seeming close relationship between its main principal and the administration.