Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Health Leslie Cadogan was on Thursday instructed to proceed on accumulated leave of 193 days from Monday, July 20th to enable significant reforms particularly in light of growing concerns over the procurement and distribution of drugs.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon, in a letter to Cadogan on Thursday, said it had been brought to the attention of the Ministry of the Presidency that he had accumulated 193.5 days of leave.
The letter added, “The Minister of Public Health (Dr George Norton) by a letter dated July 16th, 2015 has advised me that as part of significant reforms to be undertaken within the Ministry of Public Health, particularly in light of growing concerns relative to the procurement and distributing of pharmaceuticals of his intention to have you proceed on all outstanding vacation leave.”
The letter said that Trevor Thomas has been identified to act as Permanent Secretary in the interim and there must be a handover of all ministry/government properties to him.
The letter was copied to Norton and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Presidency Omar Shariff.
The letter to Cadogan came on the heels of a report in Wednesday’s edition of Stabroek News that the Ministry of Health on Tuesday began processing a $572M payment to the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) in connection with a contract that was awarded to the company weeks before the May 11 general elections.
According to a Ministry of Health request form seen by Stabroek News, the payment was for the purchase of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. The document, dated July 14th, 2015, was signed by Cadogan.
On April 21, the PPP/C Cabinet gave its no-objection to the award of a contract for US$6.7M (approximately $1.4B). Notification was then given on April 27th by the Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board Donald De Clou to Cadogan that Cabinet had given its no-objection.
On May 9th, Stabroek News had reported that $2B in payments to New GPC for drug supplies had been speeded up. This figure was meant to have included the US$6.7M.
It is unclear if this cheque was withdrawn. At the time it would have been prepared, none of the drugs under the contract would have yet been supplied.
The awards of drug contracts to New GPC had been subject to much criticism by APNU and the AFC when they were in opposition.
The previous PPP/C government had introduced new pre-qualification guidelines for those wishing to supply drugs to the public sector and critics had charged that these had been heavily skewed in favour of New GPC to ensure that only it prequalified.
In the end, only New GPC was prequalified despite complaints from several others who had applied for prequalification.
The APNU+AFC government is said to be assessing the way forward for the supply of drugs to the public health system.
