The New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (NewGPC) has refuted claims made by Minister Volda Lawrence that it had in 2016 supplied expired or nearly expired drugs to the Ministry of Public Health. The company also claims to have not received any of the contracts totaling more than $1.3 billion which the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) awarded in the first two months of 2017.
In a written response to questions asked by Opposition Member of Parliament Juan Edghill, Lawrence had identified New GPC as one of four companies which “attempted to supply drugs which were close to the expiry date.” The identification was supported by an attached five-page document titled AA which listed several pharmaceuticals delivered to the Ministry within six to seven months of their printed expiration date. 34 of the listed pharmaceuticals were recorded as being received from New GPC.
The company in a statement released on Wednesday, maintains that “it has never, under any circumstances, ever delivered expired or “nearly expired” goods to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation or the Ministry.”
“With regards to Georgetown Public Hospital contracts, the company is willing to furnish copies of delivery notes and invoices, which shows the batch number and expiry date for each and every line item supplied. It should be noted that recording expiry dates and batch numbers on delivery documentation is standard practice for traceability of the products. Moreover, under the current delivery system NEW GPC is required to furnish a Delivery Notification showing all pending deliveries including expiry dates and batch numbers, several days prior to actual delivery. This is to enable the Hospital staff to scrutinize same and plan for space to accommodate delivered items,” the company explains.
New GPC has also questioned Lawrence’s claim that during last year GPHC was provided with inferior or substandard drugs from them. The company is accused of providing discoloured tablets, tablets with pungent odours and soda lime with incorrect granule composition.
The company explained that Soda Lime was supplied to another (private) Hospital which had no issues with the product, as was claimed by GPHC.
“NEW GPC has also tested the Paracetamol tablets and found no issues as was reported by the Hospital directly to the certain media houses,” the statement notes.
The company also addressed Stabroek News’ report that it was responsible for the “non-delivery” of $381m in products. This was an error by Stabroek News as in her response Minister Lawrence identified International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA) as having failed to deliver the stated product within the stipulated contractual period.
New GPC said that it received only $146,046,657 million in contracts from the Hospital in 2016.
It further noted that of that $146 million in contracts, $140,055,325 was delivered.
“The Hospital refused to take the outstanding balance of $5,991,332 initially because of claimed “stocktaking”. They subsequently alleged that the time for delivery had elapsed when it was clearly not NEW GPC’s fault. Later, the hospital accepted delivery on one of the same items they had earlier refused, on a purchase order. All contracts for earlier years have been fulfilled 100%”, the company stated.
Additionally, the company has claimed that it has not received any business from its 2017 bids despite participating in several public tenders.
According to the statement the last public tender was submitted three months ago on February 14, 2017 but almost three months later it is still being “evaluated” by the Tender Board.
This evaluation is still occurring despite GPHC having spent $1.3 billion for the procurement of medical supplies.
“It is now obvious that the tender process is just a smokescreen and the hospital has already frittered away its budget by secretly gifting G$1.3Bln in business to their preferred supplier, all neatly sole-sourced and contrary to the public tender procedures,” the company said before adding that they are still owed money for various goods and services supplied to GPHC.
