Management of pharmaceuticals…New Health Minister singles out better technology, newer storage facility

Jan 14, 2017 News

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The use of technology to improve the management of the country’s drug supply was highlighted Wednesday when new Health Minister, Volda Lawrence, visited the Kingston Central Supply Unit (CSU).

The visit came more than a week after President David Granger announced a “shift” in his Cabinet, with former Health Minister, Dr. George Norton, moving to the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Lawrence from Social Protection to the Ministry of Public Health.
The visit would also come after a damning Board of Inquiry report released last month which criticized the management of the country’s facilities.
According to the Ministry of Public Health, Lawrence visited the Material Management Unit (MMU) and the Central Supply Unit (CSU) in Kingston and interacted with management and staff.
She was accompanied by the Permanent Secretary, Trevor Thomas, and the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Colette Adams.
Gregory Richards, Head of Central Supply Unit, was also on hand to give an overview of the general functions of the units and to define the roles and duties of members of staff.
The Minister’s visit was primarily for the purpose of meeting the staff and gaining an insight into the functioning of the Procurement Office, the Accounting Department, Stores and General Administration.
Further, the Minister wanted to ascertain the policies guiding these units, the line of authority, the systems and procedures and the physical structure.
“During the visit, Minister Lawrence thanked the staff for their hard work over the years and encouraged them to have a good work ethic, to demonstrate good interpersonal skills and always to perform at their best.

“Minister Lawrence also recognized the success of the Ministry’s vaccination coverage in Guyana and singled out the Procurement Section and the medical officers, especially the nurses for their overall contribution towards good service delivery in each region.”
Staffers, the ministry said, were given the opportunity to voice their concerns and offer suggestions on ways in which the overall management and functioning of the Material Management Unit Services could be improved.
“The Minister, for her part, noted that technology was not fully utilized in these units and that proper storage of medical materials and equipment, furnishings and supplies needed to be addressed. Minister Lawrence alluded to the need for a more modern storage facility, which, she stated, would allow for a faster and smoother operation within the unit.”
The recent Board of Inquiry, conducted by Winston Cosbert, Assistant Commissioner of Police (retd), has been submitted to Government for consideration and has pointed to poor management of the inventory of pharmaceuticals.
The inventory, worth billions of dollars, was last year stored mainly in the state-of-the-art Materials Management Unit (MMU) facility at Diamond, East Bank Demerara and Central Stores Unit (CSU) at Mudflat, Kingston.
Another bond, at Albouystown, has since been established.
A Field Auditor of the Ministry of Public Health, Hemchand Persaud, testified before the Board of Inquiry late last year that his responsibilities entailed checking the MMU at Diamond and the CSU at Kingston quarterly and submitting a report with his finding to the Permanent Secretary.
According to Persaud, during the period July 25, 2016 to August 31st, 2016, he conducted an audit at the MMU Diamond warehouse where he unearthed several discrepancies. Among other things, it was found that expired products were being disposed of without any proper documentation or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) followed.
”Over 95% of the product balances in the Management Accounting System (MAC) Inventory System is incorrect, in some instances they are understated or overstated by the thousands,” the report said.
The Board of Inquiry was ordered by President David Granger in October to investigate reports of the unauthorized disclosure of information to suppliers. The inquiry was also supposed to investigate reports of malpractice and mismanagement of the pharmaceuticals that had been bought by the ministry.
Among other things, the auditor found that at the new Diamond facility, unauthorized personnel were entering the warehouse and uplifting supplies.
”Internal controls are seriously lacking at the facility. Currently random checks are not made to items being dispatched to facilities to ensure the correct quantities or products are dispatched. The dispatches are just prepared as gate passes stating the amount of cartons leaving the warehouse.”
At the Kingston bond, the auditor found that management was also poor. None of the product locations were labelled.
”Like items are stored in multiple locations. Whilst counting the Stationery Store, the department came across a large quantity of items packed on three separate pallets. A query was made, to which the response given was that the items were already sorted, issued by the store, and awaiting shipment to the various regions.”
In other instances, drugs and other supplies were issued without approval for computers and other high value items.
It recommended the sacking of current Permanent Secretary (PS) Trevor Thomas, for failure to properly carry out his duties. He was accused of allowing a major supplier, New GPC, to be overpaid more than $100M in an advance for pharmaceuticals last year.
The PS was also accused of turning a blind eye when it was brought to his attention that a staffer was colluding with a Trinidadian company in leaking information about other suppliers. There was no investigation, yet the staffer was transferred.
There were several other instances of what appeared to be wrongdoing at the ministry, the report said.
The report by the retired senior cop also recommended a shake-up in personnel in the procurement, finance and management departments of the ministry.

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