Latest update April 7th, 2025 12:08 AM
Contract for emergency pharmaceuticals…Magnitude of drugs does not meet criteria – Opposition
The ‘magnitude’ of drugs procured under emergency purpose, flies in the face of the Procurement
PPP/C MP Juan Edghill
Act. This is the contention of the Main Parliamentary Opposition – the People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPP/C).
During a Press conference at the party’s Headquarters – Freedom House, Robb Street Georgetown yesterday, Member of Parliament Juan Edghill said that while emergency purchases are provided for in the Procurement Act, it is only resorted to when there is a national crisis or something of ‘catastrophic proportions’.
Edghill was referring to the award of a $1.5B contract to four companies to supply pharmaceuticals for the state.
The awarding of this contract has become a somewhat contentious one after documents were leaked to the local media, bringing into question the process used to grant the contract to only a selected number of contractors.
The recently-appointed Minister of Health, Volda Lawrence and officials of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) are facing heat over sole-sourcing allegations. However, the Minister has since informed that only specific suppliers were invited to bid because other specific contractors are being investigated for failing to honour their obligations.
The former Social Protection Minister has made it clear on several occasions – and only
Former Public Health Minister, George Norton
yesterday – that the process to award the contract was expedited in order to facilitate the timely delivery of urgently needed drugs.
Edghill on the other hand, is saying that “You don’t procure supplies of a magnitude for an extended period; you procure enough to deal with the immediacy of the emergency and then you go back to regular process of procurement,”
During a news conference at the National Communications Network (NCN), Minister Lawrence was asked if the quantity of emergency drugs being purchased was intended to satisfy immediacy.
She replied, “We have just begun 2017. If our consumption at any one place – let us say 1000 tablets a month, you can’t go and buy for one month, because by the time this 2017 procurement kicks in, we wouldn’t start to get drugs till June, July…so what happens then?”
The Minister said that she has been informed that some of the drugs have already been delivered, but she could not say when the remainder will be transported.
Meanwhile, during the PPP/C Press Conference, Edghill spoke about the “questioning” of the former Minister of Health, George Norton during a convening of the Committee of Supply – a Parliamentary committee.
Edghill said that Norton had explained that the Government had adopted a new system where monies were allocated to the various regions for medical supplies. These monies were then warranted back to the Ministry to do the purchasing.
The MP claimed that the committee discovered that at the end of 2015 and 2016, significant sums of money were unexpended or unaccounted for as it relates to the procurement of drugs, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. He suggested that serious intervention is needed to correct this.
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