NEW GPC delivers value for money

Procurement of drugs highly transparent – Ramsammy

Former Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy

Former Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy has said the administration has consistently benefited from procuring medical supplies and pharmaceuticals from approved and prequalified suppliers, as compared to a process of tendering out which has resulted in unreliability, delays and other problems related to quality.
Dr Ramsammy was at the time speaking during the Television Guyana’s (TVG- 28) “Current Issues and Analyses” talk show (The CIA), where he reiterated government’s “satisfaction” with the current systems in place for procuring medical supplies and pharmaceuticals from various reputable and “competent” companies.
He belaboured the point that the Health Ministry is not responsible for choosing companies that qualify or that should benefit from any given contract as this was the responsibility of the National Tender Board. Dr Ramsammy said the process is transparent and highly competitive, explaining that there are a menu of other things that must be considered when selecting companies to supply services, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to the health sector, apart from price.
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the Health Ministry procure more than 2000 various items through different entities to meet the needs of the local health sector. The minister disagreed that more efficiency, expedience or benefits could be derived from procuring supplies through an item by item tender arrangement or process when compared with the well-recommended prequalification exercise.
“We would have to do thousands of tenders on an annual basis,” he admitted, explaining that this would be “cumbersome” and “impossible”. The current prequalification binds suppliers to provide and meet a clear schedule of requirements; it guarantees reliability and allows government to save millions of dollars. This exercise, according to Minister Ramsammy, also allows government to ensure that the highest standards are maintained and the health of the nation is not compromised.
Companies that qualified had to have warehouse storage capacity, cold storage facilities and paper work completed on the agency from which their supplies would be procured, which in turn had to have international certification.
In addition, the local suppliers had to have passed some eight categories of scrutiny and requirements. Dr Ramsammy disclosed that only the NEW GPC met all the criteria, with the most important being warehouse and cold storage facilities.
“We at the Ministry of Health, the Georgetown Public Hospital and health centres… do not have the capacity to store all of the supplies that we request or procure on an annual basis,” he said. He said that the process of prequalifying companies was important in this regard.
“In order for me to qualify you, I have to know where you are getting your supplies from,” he argued, explaining that serious problems were encountered.
“We don’t want to buy medicine from companies that are manufacturing fake medicine. In the last five years, out of the 74 times that we went into the private sector to test malaria medicine, 54 times they failed… so we have to be careful,” he warned.
He also said that good manufacturing practices are important. Among the list of entities that form part of the prequalified suppliers are the NEW GPC, which has been producing medicine since 1919, and the Medfarm Co. These entities prequalified on the fact that they are local manufacturers of medicine, so automatically they are part of the group of entities to be considered.
“The government of Guyana through a Cabinet decision decided that if there are medicine manufacturers in the country, they will automatically qualify as prequalified suppliers, but they are not automatically qualified to supply because that will be dependent on the price they offer,” he rationalised.
Dr Ramsammy said another list of companies form part of the prequalification group under the “international” ranking, which includes PAHO, IDB, UNICEF, WHO, UNDP and the NEW GPC after meeting all of the requirements to benefit from large contracts.
“For anyone to say this (process) wasn’t transparent is being wicked and is misrepresenting the truth,” Dr Ramsammy asserted, as he said that apart from the prequalification process of acquiring medical supplies, the administration engages in public tendering, and few companies meet the minimal standards set.
He was adamant that all entities are offered the opportunity to become part of the prequalified group, but if they fail to meet the requirements set, there can be no compromise in certain areas which are critical to safeguarding the nation’s health.

The issue of pricing
Dr Ramsammy said that the decision to select a supplier is also about government saving monies, getting value for money, ensuring reliability and accessing warehouse and storage facilities.
To his mind, the NEW GPC as both a prequalified supplier and an entity that competes for contracts fairly, offers all of the aforementioned services to the Guyanese public while most times facing or “absorbing losses”. “We have a system that has worked for us,” Dr Ramsammy explained, stating that an assessment of the lowest tenders is made as well as assessments of individual items. He admitted that there may be a few cases where some prices appear high, and could be sourced for cheaper prices, noting that this was tricky because when attempts are made to do so, problems arise.
“If someone won the contract to supply 300 items… and out of that list we have withdrawn about three items because the prices were high and they could indeed be sourced through another competitor and we approach that company they sometimes refuse,” he said.
The NEW GPC however has consistently delivered, offering and rewarding the government with discounts after larger bulk purchases are made, which benefits the public treasury.
The former health minister also said when the International Pharmaceutical Agency had won a contract to supply anti-retroviral drugs for the country, but failed to honour the contract time and suffered delays; it was the NEW GPC that provided the same drugs in the interim until the IPA was able to deliver.
Guyana has also successfully procured items through the prequalification and other methods at between 20 to 30 per cent less than the International Average Reference prices.
Dr Ramsammy said that this speaks volumes about the tendering process, noting that government procures supplies at affordable rates, considering the value for money it receives, especially in the case of NEW GPC as he dismissed several malicious reports from the Kaieteur News.