…says KN articles mischievous, out to misinform
Last Thursday, February 17th, Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy flayed the Kaieteur News for what he believes is a deliberate attempt by that media house to tarnish the image of the current administration.
The health minister was at the time referring to two articles carried by the said media house that suggested that government, through the Health Ministry, was not being transparent in the process set out for the procurement of pharmaceuticals. A Wednesday, February 16 Kaieteur News article stated that the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Company (GPC) outbid another supplier (MedPharm) by some Gy$335 million. Additionally, a follow-up article published the next day clearly stated that the tenders for which the bids were presented were not advertised according to standard procedures and the laws of Guyana.
Speaking to Guyana Times International on Thursday, Dr Ramsammy stated that the Health Ministry complied with all of the regulations stipulated by law, and as such, the process was as transparent as possible. He then explained why the bid put out by the New GPC was vastly different from that of MedPharm. “New GPC offered a price for 169 products, while MedPharm offered a price for only two products. The story failed to mention that the tendered prices offered by the two companies were not for the same amount of line items. The Ministry of Health had requested prices for 169 products, medicines, and medical supplies. In response, the New GPC offered prices for all 169 products, amounting to Gy$348 million, while MedPharm submitted prices for only two products, at a price of $13 million.
“It is absolutely false that the government did not advertise for these goods,” the minister added. Dr Ramsammy explained that “an advertisement was placed on October 22, 2010 on the government website, www.eprocure.gov.gy, inviting submissions from local and Caricom companies to be pre-qualified to supply medicines and medical supplies to the Ministry of Health for the period 2011/2012. The successful companies were to be pre-qualified along with international suppliers vis-a-vis PAHO/WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and IDA (International Dispensary Agency) as suppliers for medicines and supplies procured with the government of Guyana’s resources.”
The pre-qualified documents as presented were based on a World Health Organisation’s pre-qualification model tender document that has established rigid requirements for pre-suppliers, the health minister said. Moreover, he noted that government has an established policy which demands that all local manufacturers (certified by the Food and Drug Analyst Department) be given opportunity to tender for all their certified products.
The deadline for the submission of applications was November 23, 2010, after which five companies, four of the lot being local companies and the other a Caricom company, issued proposals for pre-qualification.
“The New GPC and MedPharm were pre-qualified as manufacturers. Two of these (pre-qualified companies) submitted [bids] as manufacturers for a number of products. The New GPC submitted [bids] as a manufacturer for several products, and MedPharm submitted as a manufacturer of two products. On this basis, both prequalified as manufacturers with the right to submit prices for the manufactured products. As manufacturers, they were provided with the privilege of submitting their offers, but their prices had to be compared to the prices we could obtain from the international suppliers. Their pre-qualification as manufacturers did not provide an automatic approval for them to supply the medicines they are certified to produce. The prices offered for these products would still be the deciding factor,” Dr Ramsammy explained.
He noted that the New GPC was the only company that met all of the requirements stipulated for pre-qualification as a general supplier. He further stated that, of the five, the New GPC was the only company that qualified as a supplier of imported medicines and medical supplies. Despite the aforementioned, the New GPC still offered prices that can be compared to those offered by international companies.
“These were totally transparent processes, and were subjected to advertisement and to several newspaper and TV newscast reports. Stories relating to the tender were carried in local newspapers and on TV newscasts several times,” Dr Ramsammy noted. The tender process complied with the recommendations made by the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly. “As Minister of Health, I must convey my disappointment that the Kaieteur News sought to so blatantly misrepresent this story. It is my view that the editors got blinded by their anti-government frenzy…Both stories are false and (are) a total misrepresentation of the truth. In short, they represent either total ignorance of what took place or deliberate (mischief) on the part of Kaieteur News,” he stated.
Ramsammy said a government release has clearly stated that the administration supports and promotes the right of citizens to have full access to information, but demands that such information be reported accurately in the best interests of those involved, and must be unbiased and prejudiced. “It is our position that the misinformation peddled in the two stories is a deliberate effort to misinform people, and (it) fits an agenda of anti-government mischief.”
