AFC repeats call for end to drug purchases monopoly

With more than $5B in the 2014 Budget for the purchase of drugs and medical supplies, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has reiterated its call for the urgent establishment of the Public Procurement Commission and a review of the Drug Purchasing Policy.

AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan

AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, says that this is urgently needed to stop any attempt at price gouging by any pharmaceutical supplier.
Ramjattan told this publication yesterday that both the AFC and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) have submitted the names for the persons to be nominated to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). It is the PAC that is tasked with sorting through the names and making a recommendation to the President for the establishment of the Committee.
Ramjattan said that there is the urgent need for this to be done in order to level the playing field when it comes to the supply of drugs.
According to Ramjattan, the AFC believes that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board is compromised, given that all of the members are appointed by the Ministry of Finance and are subject to directives from that Ministry.
Ramjattan pointed to documented instances where one supplier, the New GPC, supplied drugs at a cost several times over what other suppliers could have supplied at.
He said that with a level playing field in place this would mean that Guyana could be able to purchase even more of the same quality of drugs rather than paying exorbitant prices.
Ramjattan said that the Ministry of Health must also revise its drug purchasing policy which panders to a monopoly created by a policy called sole sourcing. This policy has led to the creation of a monopoly when it comes to supplying government with its drugs.
Last year, Guyana spent $4.69B. This time around, according to the estimates recently approved in the National Assembly, it is the intention to expend in excess of $5.14B.
The drug bills would represent half of the total Ministry’s budget of $10B.
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is set to spend $1.86B or $40M more than in 2013.
While the Opposition approved the expenditure during the recent considerations of the 2014 National Budget, there have been questions, especially over the drug purchases by the Ministry of Health and GPHC.
Billions of dollars are being spent annually on procurement, with New GPC supplying the lion’s share. Other local importers have been complaining of a deliberate plot by the administration to sideline them.