With questions mounting as to how the national procurement board was unaware of a $605M emergency drug purchase for the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), the Ministry of Public Health yesterday deferred the promised release of a statement providing an explanation.
Doubts are likely to arise over whether the deal should proceed in light of the fact that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) was unaware of what has now emerged to be a single-sourcing arrangement between the GPHC and ANSA McAl for the drugs.
A promised public explanation from Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence had to be “reworked” and will be issued sometime today.
“Well, we had a statement but that had to be [quashed]… This is like a running story. I wasn’t here all the time. I am here for not a proper month. So what happens is I have to talk with people to get a sense of what happened and what is going to happen,” Public Relations Officer of the ministry Terrence Esseboom told Stabroek News yesterday in response to queries on the promised statement.
“Over the weekend” he also added, before specifying “definitely tomorrow (Saturday),” when asked which day on the weekend.