Procurement concerns spur health sector forensic audit

May 03, 2017 News

-PAHO/WHO agrees to conduct, fund process

Concerns relating to the quality and shortage of drugs, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in

Professor Jaime Espin Balbino will spearhead the forensic audit.

the public health sector have prompted the initiation of a forensic audit.
This is according to information disseminated by the Public Health Ministry yesterday.
The Ministry, this publication was informed, will be gaining support from the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation [PAHO/WHO] to conduct the audit process.
PAHO/WHO has also agreed to fund the cost of conducting the audit. It was pointed out that the forensic audit comes on the heels of a plethora of complaints into the procurement process.
According to Senior Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, during an early morning meeting yesterday with officials from both health and PAHO/WHO, “I found that it [the procurement process] was a bigger issue than I thought.”
She continued, “I didn’t think it was as bad as I found it [but] this is the beginning of the process of regularising operations in the wider health sector.”
But according to the Minister the audit is not intended to harass those with responsibility in the sector’s procurement process “but to correct the system”.
Professor Jaime Espin Balbino of the Andalusian School of Public Health, Regional Ministry of Health, will spearhead the forensic exercise which will target the operations of both the Ministry and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC], said Minister Lawrence.
The audit into how things are currently done and the specific changes that will be implemented will provide the roadmap for the future to remove the existing “vast deficiencies in knowledge and manpower which currently hamstring the Ministry and the GPHC,” Lawrence said as she explained the rationale for the forensic audit.
While the government health sector has internal and external audits done, Lawrence feels that “a fresh eye is needed to give the system a boost and help plug all existing gaps.”
Permanent Secretary Collette Adams has welcomed PAHO/WHO supporting the auditing exercise while Dr. Karen Cummings, Minister within the Public Health Ministry, wants the procurement process demystified.
“There is something wrong somewhere,” Cummings observed.

The meeting in session yesterday morning.

Part of the demystification Dr. Cummings has called for will entail overcoming some existing hurdles identified by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, PAHO/WHO’s Health System and Services Advisor, Dr. Paul Edwards and Professor Balbino.
The trio identified managerial and policy shortcomings, non-implementation of plans of action crafted by the Ministry, a paucity of information from the public health sector which can impact negatively on the forensic audit efforts, and shortage and hoarding of medication by patients nationwide.
Dr. Edwards is confident that “Professor Balbino is the right person for the job, having had a wide range of experience in the field, and having done similar work in Europe and Latin America.”
Nevertheless, he admitted that Professor Balbino is undertaking a “daunting process” and that several consultancies will be needed to complete what Minister Lawrence wants.
He cautioned GPHC authorities not to expect immediate results following the audit, its recommendations and implementation.
“It’s not going to be accomplished overnight,” Dr. Edwards said, referring to the lengthy time it has taken other countries to get positive results.
While the political will to transform and modernise the Ministry and GPHC is evident, Professor Balbino noted that this must be complemented by the appropriate financial backing and competent human resources.
“You are doing well [but] you can improve,” Professor Balbino told the Ministry and GPHC teams.
Managers of the Guyanese public health sector must continue thinking long-term but remember that the more the data, the better the advice, Professor Balbino said.