‘Come clean’

…Opposition calls for “full disclosure” on controversial G$605M drug purchase

…several questions submitted for Health Minister to answer in Parliament

The Opposition Peoples Progressive Party Civic is calling for “full disclosure” in relation to the over G$605 million emergency drug purchase for the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and  has moved to have the subject minister provide answers to a raft on questions on the matter, in the National Assembly.

This publication understands that the questions were submitted to the Parliament, seeking written answers from Minister Volda Lawrence on general procurement procedures by her ministry and the G$605 million drug purchase.

“Let me tell you what we are hoping to get, what we seeking to achieve; full disclosure,” PPP/C parliamentarian Juan Edghill told a press conference held at the office of the Leader of the Opposition, on Wednesday.

Both Edghill and Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira told this newspaper that they had submitted questions to the National Assembly.

According to the MPs, Minister Lawrence has not provided the nation with clear answers on the controversial matter. “The nation is being told there was a shortage… But you all could recall the Minister of Health saying during a motion that there was no shortage,” Edghill stressed.

He explained that a few questions were submitted to the National Assembly, and they were “by no means all the questions” the party has on the matter.

The PPP had made an aggressive call for the governing Board of the GPHC, to provide information, by way of minutes of its meeting, to show who gave the go ahead for the G$605 million contract to ANSA McAL

“This cannot be right, everybody has cried out against it,” Edghill had told the news conference.

According to the MP, if there is a crisis at the hospital; it is not for the minister to intervene but the Board.

Edghill had said the situation is a case where a political decision was made, after which, it would seem that the officer of the tender board was expected to comply administratively to facilitate “an improper transaction”.

Moreover, he posited that Lawrence’s justification of the whole sole sourcing scandal was very poor, especially since the advertisements for drug procurement for the medial facility were cancelled on four prior occasions.

The Parliamentarian had further stated that Lawrence was no stranger to the procurement laws in Guyana  and since she chaired the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament, she should be well informed of the concerns of the Auditor General with regards to sole sourcing.

Since the scandal broke local manufacturers have come forth and shown that the public treasury could have saved as much as half the amount being spent with ANSA McAl had the health ministry utilized the other available agencies to provide the very items at much cheaper prices than what was quoted by ANSA McAL.

Local manufacturer, NEW GPC INC, in a statement had said  that it could have supplied many of the items instantaneously, since there is usually inventory on hand. In a worst-case scenario, the company said, the delay would have been less than a few days to get the products manufactured right in Guyana.

Lawrence in her initial speech on the scandal recused herself and laid blame squarely at the feet of the suppliers, the procurement body and staff of her Ministry and GPHC among others she deemed as “moles.”

She had outlined in her initial statement that her impetus for giving the contract to the Trinidadian company ANSA McAL, was because procurement for the “engineered shortage” of pharmaceuticals needed to be expedited and “ANSA McAL not only airfreighted the drugs (this helped spike the cost to import the items) for the public health sector, but also donated four refrigerators to GPHC to store the emergency supplies at the internationally acceptable temperature of 20 to 80 C.”

Head of State David Granger had stated that disciplinary actions will be taken against anyone found to be at fault as it relates to the recent sole scouring of pharmaceuticals for the GPHC.