While the National Pro-curement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) has sent official correspondence to the Ministry of Health notifying it of the selection of the New Guyana Pharmaceu-tical Corporation (New GPC) as the only supplier prequalified to supply drugs to the health sector, the ministry is yet to notify bidders.
“No. We have not received anything as yet from the Ministry of Health,” Chief Executive Officer of ANSA McAL Guyana Beverly Harper told Stabroek News yesterday. Harper said her company is awaiting the official response from the Health Ministry so as to plan a way forward.
An official of the NPTAB told Stabroek News that the letter was prepared last week while another official informed that it had been dispatched and is logged into NPTAB records. The official explained that it is now the ministry’s role to notify all bidders on the status of their bid. “NPTAB’s role is complete for now; only if there are protests and that sort of thing. The ball is now in the hands of Ministry of Health to notify all the bidders …,” the official explained.
The official opined that the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Leslie Cadogan, is probably “ensuring all the Ts are dotted and Is are crossed.”
Efforts by this newspaper to contact Cadogan yesterday again proved futile. His secretary, informed that he was out at a meeting and would not return for the day. She took the question and said this will be relayed to Cadogan today.
Last week Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill had informed that it was only then that NPTAB had received Cabinet’s No Objection contrary to reports by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon that it was done sooner.
Cadogan last month had pointed out that his ministry was still waiting to officially be notified of the result of the prequalification process. He said then that once this is done he will notify all of the bidders. “To date, the Health Ministry has not been officially notified of any awards as it relates to the procurement of drug and medical supplies. As soon as the Health Ministry is officially notified, both successful and unsuccessful bidders(s) will be informed,” he wrote in a letter.
Since Luncheon’s announcement in July this year that only the New GPC had been selected to supply drugs to the health sector for the 2014 to 2016 period, there have been formal protests by ANSA McAl and a court challenge of the decision by the International Pharmaceu-tical Agency (IPA). IPA, in its court challenge, said that the decision was unconstitutional and is seeking to have it set aside.
The lapse by Cabinet has raised questions as to just how the process of no-objections has been conducted all the time and whether this failing was intended to protect the prequalification of New GPC from various challenges.
Edghill had explained that the NPTAB is now following the procurement protocol and from hereon companies which are not satisfied with the decision can take the necessary steps. “The tender board will now write the Ministry of Health and they will offer award… the ministry now, not NPTAB, has to notify all the others who were not selected indicating that decision,” he stated
“The other companies, those who have protests and so on, will now be able to move ahead and do that,” he further added. The new development, a source at the NPTAB explained, would see the nullification of a protest and court filings by the two companies that objected to the award and will now require them to restart these processes.
