Who has to be held accountable will be held accountable - Health Minister insists

Who has to be held accountable will be held accountable – Health Minister insists

Mar 25, 2021 News

Coalition’s $10B drug wastage…

The Ministry’s Materials Management Unit at Diamond.

Kaieteur News – Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, has made it pellucid that individuals who were responsible for the mass drug wastage that occurred under the previous government will be held accountable.
He made this assertion during a virtual press conference on Monday which sought to bring more clarity on the occurrence.
Last week, Kaieteur News reported on a damning allegation made by the former Minister of Health and current Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, where he claimed that the A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government had spent more money on the procurement of drugs/medical supplies in its five-year governance than the People’s Progressive Party/Civic had spent its 23-year reign.
In his detailed statement, he outlined that the APNU+AFC’s hefty expenditure and broken supply chain resulted in the expiration of over $10B worth of drugs/medical supplies, which was found when the current administration took office last August.
During the press conference, Minister Anthony was asked what penalties will be extended to those responsible and in response, he stated that an audit of the Materials Management Units (MMUs) was conducted and will be jointly used with the findings from the physical verifications that were also conducted. “…based on the final report that we’ll get, I’m sure there’ll be recommendations that will be made to us and we’ll utilise those recommendations, we’ll involve the necessary agencies, turn those findings over to them,” he noted, adding that “at this stage” however, the government’s primary goal right now is to fix the current drug shortage that has been left behind.
“And those other things in terms of the findings and those institutions we’ll be engaging with those findings, we will do that simultaneously and make sure that whoever gotta be held accountable will be held accountable,” Minister Anthony affirmed.
The government began dumping the expired drugs/medical supplies near September last year, which saw almost $1B in items being discarded and between October and recent days, another billion had to be “thrown away”.
Approximately 300 truckloads of drugs have been dumped so far and it has been stated that, that exercise has been very costly in terms of taxpayer’s dollars.
In last year’s emergency budget, a significant sum was allocated to replenish Guyana’s drug supply, but despite that being done, there are still shortages of certain drugs in the health system.
Furthermore, the government has already put out new tenders, in hopes of further managing the on-going shortage.

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