CEO of the International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA) Lloyd Singh yesterday charged that there is still to be a level playing field in the award of contracts for the supply of drugs, while saying that his company is still trying to find out why it failed a pre-qualification process undertaken two years ago.
“We have not enjoyed a level playing field. After almost two decades we are expecting changes to come and we are still waiting,” Singh said in an interview yesterday at the company’s head office Camp Street. “We have been writing letters for the last year… We wrote letters to the chairman of NPTAB [National Procurement and Tender Administration Board] Donald De Clou, the then-Minister of Health Leslie Ramsammy, Hydar Ally, then-president Bharrat Jagdeo, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, who is also Secretary of Cabinet, to all cabinet members, and to this day we have not received a single, I say a single line to say why we were disqualified. We have checked it further… and are left at a loss here,” Singh added.
Since the constitution of the current Cabinet, he said he wrote new Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran, asking him to look into the issue. He said Ramsaran has replied to him, by phone, informing that “he is looking into the matter.”
Singh’s comments come in wake of concern over a contact awarded to New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) for the supply of drugs and medical supplies to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) worth $1.3B, for which there was no public tender process. Other large contracts for the supply of drugs and medical supplies have previously been awarded to the New GPC through single sourcing over a number of years—a practice that was criticised by the Auditor General and opposition parties.
In light of Singh’s criticism of the contract recent contract award, New GPC noted in a statement that that IPA failed a pre-qualification exercise for suppliers of pharmaceutical and medical supplies, as the Health Ministry and the NPTAB found it did not meet all of their requirements. It also said that although IPA failed to pre-qualify, it has been the beneficiary of contracts from the Ministry of Health for several hundred millions of dollars every year. Further, in one instance, NGPC stated that it had to intervene “to avert a national crisis” after IPA failed to supply anti-retrovirals, for which it had been awarded a contract.
Singh said he also wanted to “clear the air of misinformation” being perpetuated by New GPC CEO Dr Bobby Ramroop that IPA was being awarded hundreds of millions in contracts from government. Instead, he said, it was only when New GPC could not supply a specific drug that he is ever given any contracts by the Ministry of Health. He produced documents which revealed that in the last 14 months, he was awarded seven contracts, valued at $51,360,325 in total, to supply equipment, for which New GPC does not bid.
“The statement he is making in the papers about hundreds of millions of dollars is totally false… I wish I was getting that kind of contracts from the government… I have had a total of a little over $51 million in government contracts the last fourteen months and that is it. Dr Ramroop can maybe give me the difference and let me share it out to the poor,” he said. In addition to the seven contracts for medical supplies, Singh said, under the Global Fund’s procurement to supply drugs IPA was awarded six contracts totalling $102,051,060, in the last 14 months.
In response to the claim that New GPC had to intervene “to avert a national crisis” after IPA failed to supply anti-retrovirals for which it had been awarded a contract, Singh said it was untrue. IPA had previously bid for a contract to supply anti-retroviral drugs and was awarded that contract, he explained. However, some time before the scheduled date for the supply of the drugs, IPA was given a separate ‘emergency contract’ to supply anti-retrovirals. “It seems Dr Ramroop is running the Ministry of Health,” Singh said, “because the government never put in the paper that there is a crisis on HIV supplies.”
Singh read documents stating that on January 20, 2010, IPA received a tender. On March 9, it submitted the tender documents. On July 15, it received correspondence saying that it was awarded a contract for supply emergency supplies needed to the tune of $14 million and was awarded the national contract that it had bid for in March on August 27. “We supplied all our products before the date given. Before the deadline given so where was this national crisis? Let the Ministry of Health answer this,” he said.
Singh said he is upset that for over 20 years his company had been subjected to unfair awarding of contracts and he wants it to stop.
The Auditor General had previously recommended that the Health Ministry advertise internationally, every three years, for the supply of drugs and medical supplies and pre-qualify suppliers. In the face of past criticism, Ramsammy had strongly defended direct drug purchases from the New GPC as compliant with a 2003 Cabinet decision, but also announced that his ministry would request a renewal of a decision which would also allow procurement from several international suppliers. When later confronted at the level of the Public Accounts Committee about the practice continuing, despite the Auditor General’s recommendation, the ministry’s accounting officer later said Cabinet had renewed its approval by the issuance of another Cabinet Decision in 2008. At the end of 2010, Ramsammy announced that the government had stopped sole-sourcing drugs from the NGPC and that tenders were being considered by NPTAB.
