New GPC must compete with top int’l agencies

…to supply medical drugs to Guyana

Despite being cleared as the sole pre-qualified company to supply medical drugs to the Guyana Government, NEW GPC INC would still have to compete with a number of top international agencies that gained automatic qualification.

These agencies include the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

There has been some confusion regarding sole-sourcing of drugs with some reporters equating the NEW GPC’s pre-qualification clearance as being sole sourcing. Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, President Donald Ramotar was again asked about the issue of sole sourcing in the context that a sole supplier can sell at exorbitant prices because of the supposed monopoly.

Higher standard

The President, in his response, agreed that overpricing could be an issue with a sole supplier, saying “… maybe what we have to do is encourage broader participation and higher standards and hopefully some of those who did not reach the criteria will reach them”.

Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon had earlier explained that the pre-qualification exercise is not “sole sourcing”, which is when only one supplier has items. After pre-qualification, NEW GPC will still have to compete with the international pre-qualified suppliers. Dr Luncheon announced last Wednesday that NEW GPC was the only one of the seven companies that had applied for “pre-qualification” status to fulfil all the requirements.

This, however, does not mean that NEW GPC will become the “sole supplier” as was assumed by a reporter at the press conference, but will join the list of international suppliers mentioned above that were automatically pre-qualified and against which NEW GPC will have to bid.

The term “no-bid contract” or sole-sourcing is a popular phrase for what is officially known as a “sole source contract” which means that there is only one person or company that can provide the contractual services needed, so any attempt to obtain bids would only result in that person or company bidding on it. United States laws permit the Government to award sole source contracts under specified circumstances.

Expert scrutiny

President Ramotar told the news conference held at State  House on Saturday that the other six companies that had submitted bids to be considered as a pre-qualified supplier had failed to meet their criteria. The Head of State again clarified that the decision of awarding the contract was done strictly at the level of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) and not at the level of Cabinet.

The NPTAB had selected a panel of experts who scrutinised the applications. From the onset, some of the disgruntled companies had complained that the criteria were “too high” and required substantial investments in infrastructure and human resources.

On Saturday, NEW GPC General Manager Ravie Ramcharitar told Guyana Times International that the company invested billions of dollars to create the proper storage for pharmaceuticals.

“It is not appreciated how complex was the infrastructural network to man the pharmaceutical supply chain for Government. We hired hundreds of qualified Guyanese to create a world-class manufacturing facility,” he said.

Ramcharitar also pointed out that pre-qualified suppliers do not provide all pharmaceuticals needed to the Health Ministry and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Under the rules, there is direct bidding that results in some of the companies, such as International Pharmaceutical Association (IPA), that failed to pre-qualify, winning hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for pharmaceuticals and equipment.

Change criteria

Responding to queries about whether the criteria should be changed to allow for more than one company to supply the health sector with drugs, so as to allow for competitive pricing, the President noted that changing the criteria to allow for the entry of another firm that could not meet the prior criteria would allow for the danger of being supplied with poor-quality drugs.