Opposition to Govt: Come clean on drug purchases

The Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has expressed disappointment over Monday’s sitting and the fact that after bringing questions to the House on drug procurement, they are still left with more questions than answers.

During a press conference, Opposition Member of Parliament, Juan Edghill decried the answers given by the subject Ministers to the PPP’s questions.

According to Edghill, the answers skirted some of the specifics he had sought.

“I had placed four questions to the House, particularly to deal with drugs and medical supplies. Three of those questions went to the Minister of Public Health (Volda Lawrence) and one went to the Minister of Communities (Ronald Bulkan).”

“The answers provided by both Ministers sought to obfuscate and hide information. Lots of the questions were not answered and even when answers were provided, the state of affairs as it relates to drugs and medical supplies were not clarified.”

Reports from the IFMAS, he said provides no information as it relates to the answers sought. “Because an IFMAS report will simply tell you on the free balance system of the Ministry of Finance (what) money was budgeted, spent and (how) much remains unallocated.”

According to Edghill, the party had asked questions like the name of each supplier, the date of the awards were given and for what amount. He said that these questions were not satisfactorily answered.

“We want to know if it’s January 13, February 22, April 9, which contractor and how much money was the award,” the former Junior Finance Minister stressed.

Some of the questions posed to Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence, included what the amount expended for drugs and medical supplies for her Ministry and specifically the Georgetown Public Hospital, between January 1, 2016 and February 28, 2017.

In addition, she had been asked what percentage of the 2016 budgetary allocations for drugs and medical supplies was expended by December 31, 2016. Edghill had also said that the Party wanted to know if any monies were unspent and returned to the Consolidated Fund and how much was returned.

The questions also sought to uncover the reasons for the underperformance in the procurement of drugs and medical supplies for the public health system.

But in its responses, the Government had admitted to not publicly tendering for close to two billion dollars in medical supplies over the past year.

“But having had all the running around and fancy explanations, it is clear that the Ministry of Public Health, the Georgetown Public Hospital and the Ministry of Communities have expended, collectively, more than G$4 billion of which no proper procurement process was used.”

He noted that in the answers given, the Ministry acknowledged not tendering for drugs since July 2016. Within that time, Edghill said, some G$2.7 billion has been expended on drugs and medical supplies.

The questions had been tabled by Edghill and PPP Chief Whip Gail Teixeira. According to Teixeira, at a press conference back in March, she had stated that the Opposition was not satisfied with the answers given by the Public Health Minister on the recent emergency procurement for the GPHC.

This is a reference to the attempt to award a G$605 million drug procurement contract to Trinidad Company ANSA McCAL. There has been widespread condemnation for the move, which has resulted in unprecedented scrutiny for the Public Health Ministry and drug procurement in general.