MOH UNEQUIVOCALLY REJECTS AUBREY NORTON’S LATEST DESPERATE RANTINGS

Dec 25, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Every week, Aubrey Norton as the leader of the PNC/R and the Leader of the Opposition tries desperately to emulate Bharat Jagdeo when Bharat Jagdeo was the Leader of the Opposition. Few Opposition Leaders in CARICOM’s history were as effective as Bharat Jagdeo who excelled as the Leader of the Opposition such that the PNC-led APNU/AFC had its time in Government curtailed to a single term after the people rejected them in the March 2020 general and regional elections. Even as we acknowledge the brilliance of Bharat Jagdeo as an Opposition Leader, we also must bemoan the fact that Aubrey Norton, so far as the Leader of the Opposition, has distinguished himself in the opposite direction, with few Opposition Leaders in CARICOM’s history ever as ineffective and clueless as he is.

In an invited comment on the Government of Guyana’s successful negotiation of a $US160M CLIP loan with the IDB for the development of the health sector, with $US97M in the first phase allocated to build new hospitals in four hinterland communities and with the redevelopment of Linden and New Amsterdam Hospitals and the GPHC, he dismissed the project as another scheme by the PPP Government to facilitate corruption to benefit supporters of the PPP. It is an utterly baseless statement, one that exposes the visionless and clueless approach of the PNC and its Leaders to the development of Guyana and the Guyanese people. In alleging that these are merely corruption-based initiatives, Norton also characterizes the IDB as corrupt because all procurement and implementation must meet the approval of the IDB.

Does Aubrey Norton truly believe that Lethem, Moruca, Kamarang and Kato do not deserve new hospitals? Is it because these communities are largely Amerindian communities which are majority-supporters of the PPP? Why would Norton not want the Regional Hospital at Linden to be developed into an advanced Level 3 hospital, with more operating theatres, CT and more advanced diagnostic capacity? Is it because he fears that this would win support for the PPP in his stronghold? Why is it that Norton would not want the New Amsterdam Hospital to be redeveloped to serve as a level 5 hospital, with MRI and CT with double the present operating theatre capacity and with a capacity for cardiac interventions? And why would he not want the Government to redevelop the GPHC to serve as a genuine referral hospital, with an advanced orthopedic service, full-scale cardiac surgery and CARICOM’s leading transplant centre?

Which of these plans is based on a corruption scheme? The fact is that the plans announced for cooperation between the PPP Government and the IDB is part of a vision and a plan to completely transform the physical and technological infrastructure of the health sector by 2025. Norton’s PNC-led APNU/AFC legacy was that between 2015 and 2020, they caused the health sector to regress, a price Guyanese are paying for today. It is the PPP that is remedying the assault on the health sector that was shamelessly launched by the PNC-led APNU/AFC between 2015 and 2020.

Norton further exposes his cluelessness when he referred to an IDB Report that placed Guyana second to last in the Region based on access to care. This was an IDB Report based on an assessment in 2019/2020 for access to care for COVID-19. The report exposes the unconscionable response of the APNU/AFC Government when by August 2020 there was barely any capacity for COVID-19 testing when the ICU capacity of the country was limited to 12 ventilator-supported ICU beds, when there was barely any isolation capacity for COVID-19 patients when more than $2B was spent on retrofitting an old hotel and leaving it in August 2020 as a shell. He brazenly and shamelessly left the scandal of the COVID-19 response caused by APNU/AFC which he now leads at the feet of the PPP. It is the PPP that immediately after August 2020 transformed the COVID-19 response. Within months, one of the most aggressive testing regimes in CARICOM was established in Guyana, moving from less than 10 tests per day to more than 500 per day with a capacity of several thousand per day. The PPP Government took the Ocean View hotel shell after APNU/AFC spent more than $2B and transform it into a modern Infectious Disease Hospital. Within weeks after the COVID-19 vaccine became available, Guyana became one of the first CARICOM countries to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all adults in Guyana.

The IDB report did mention poor access to hospital-based care in hinterland communities. Ironically, the bulk of the $US97M IDB funding is intended to significantly improve hospital-based care in these regions, the very thing Norton attacks. If this is not cluelessness, what then is it?

Norton repeats the same false allegations that Kaieteur News made a few weeks ago when they completely misrepresented the Auditor General’s Report for 2021. He referred to a large local company which had contracts amounting to over 50% of the total procurement for medicines and medical supplies. Like the Kaieteur News, Norton failed to mention that the Auditor General simply listed all the suppliers, with no assertion that anyone obtained any contract through a breach of the procurement laws. The specific company that Norton identified as a friend of the PPP earned contracts to supply medicines and medical supplies after winning publicly advertised tenders. In all cases, the company earned contracts after submitting winning bids to the NPTAB. The Auditor General never inferred that any of the contracts obtained by any one of the suppliers was obtained through any illegitimate procedure or any violation of the procurement laws of Guyana. None of the 2021 contracts, except for the PAHO contract, was a sole-sourced contract. The open-bidding process that has been employed by the PPP Government is in direct contrast to the sole-sourcing that became the norm between 2015 and 2020 when APNU-AFC simply sole-sourced from their donors and friends.

Norton, taking his cue from Kaieteur News, an entity whose fake news has become Norton’s bible, also referred to the Auditor General Report 2021 that highlighted the fact that $478M of medicines and medical supplies were not delivered in 2021. The Auditor General Report 2021 simply highlighted that throughout 2021 and 2022, medicines and medical supplies, like other goods, suffered from global shortages and long delays in transportation (logistical delays). This is not a Guyana problem, nor has it been caused by the PPP Government. In addition, as pointed out by the Auditor General Report 2021, the Ministry’s 2021 procurement included COVID-19 supplies that would have been needed in 2022 and, therefore, were subjected to delayed or “staggered” delivery. The MOH several weeks ago clarified that since then most of the supplies have been delivered.

The MOH reiterates that in August 2020, it inherited a system steeped in sole sourcing, such as the HBD contract, resulting from a rejected restricted tender process in which only invited bidders were allowed to tender and then after disqualifying all of them, reinvited each to resubmit new tenders and accepted the highest offer. For example, in that 2017 process, HBD’s price for Neulasta was $205,675, compared to the $22,429 submitted by another company. We remind people that examples like the sole-sourcing of a building that was nothing but a normal resident were rented for almost $15M (rent plus other charges) per month dominate the MOH’s procurement landscape in Guyana between 2015 and 2020. Such total violation of the procurement laws does not happen at this time.

In addition, the MOH inherited a system in which suppliers routinely failed to supply medicines and supplies they were fully paid for. For example, at the end of 2018, more than $346M worth of medicines from contracts in 2015/2016 were not delivered. There are many examples of medicines and medical supplies that are still owing from 2016/2017.

The MOH has tried to ensure that all procurement is through public tender. In cases where sole sourcing is the only credible procedure available, it is used, but only after obtaining NPTAB approval. A case in point is the procurement of vaccines. When Sinopharm vaccines were procured from Sinopharm, it was a direct purchase from Sinopharm. When Roche COVID-19 reagents were purchased for the PCR COVID-19 test, it was bought directly from the Roche-licensed agent.

Aubrey Norton must answer to the people of regions 1,7,8 and 9 why he opposes the construction of new level 3 hospitals to replace hospitals that could not even meet the standards of level 2 hospitals in Lethem. Kamarang, Kato and Moruca. He must tell the people of regions 1,7,8 and 9 why IDB resources that will ensure a comprehensive telemedicine program to reduce referral and travel to GPHC are corrupt. He must also tell Region 10 and the people of Linden why they do not deserve an upgrade of the present hospital to deliver comprehensive Level 3 services. The last upgrade of the Linden Hospital was in 2006 when the PPP replaced the old hospital with a new building. The PNC-led APNU/AFC did nothing to improve the Linden Hospital. Now that a major upgrade of the Linden Hospital has been proposed, Norton is opposed to it. Lindeners and Region 10 will not forget this insult. Norton must explain to the Guyanese people why redevelopment of New Amsterdam Hospital to not just deliver a full level 4 package of service but allow it to function as a Level 5 facility is corruption. Norton must also explain why the redevelopment of the GPHC to allow it to perform as a full-fledged level 5 facility and a leading hospital in CARICOM is corrupt.

The MOH rejects the baseless allegations made by Aubrey Norton and will continue to remind people how Norton rejected better health for our people.

Regards,

Ministry of Health

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