Kaieteur News masked the truth again – govt

Pharmaceuticals procurement

– NEW GPC spends $150M annually to provide free warehousing

The government on Sunday slammed Kaieteur News for “again publishing unfair information that seeks to give only partial information and misrepresent the truth”.
The administration’s statement comes in wake of an article in the newspaper on Sunday headlined “Govt pays $1,909 for $80 cream”.  In its response, government said the truth is it has worked assiduously to ensure reliable supplies of medicines at the most affordable prices.
“Supplier quotations for a list of products are assessed as a package, the combined cost for the package. For example, we might request quotations for more than 400 products at a time. The common quoted products between suppliers are compared in terms of prices and the overall lowest price is accepted for the list. This is what happened on the last two occasions when ketoconazole were procured as one item of a list of items. This medicine was part of a large list and the overall cost for this list was lower through the NGPC. This was determined through the evaluation process of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.”
The government explained that item-by-item cost varies among suppliers, noting that while it does take into consideration cost per item, the overall cost for a list of items is critical for overall savings. Unless one item is overwhelmingly over-priced, “we prefer to keep them within the list”.

Workers at the NEW GPC warehouse facility on the East Bank Demerara

The government explained that in instances where the cost for one item is priced far too high, “we disaggregate out the items where the quoted prices are too high, and remove them from the list. But often another supplier will not want to supply just one or two or a small number of items from the list, particularly when the amount requested is too small. In this particular case, the total amount requested was a small amount. In addition, the procurement manager requested that the particular item be airlifted in order to prevent a stock out.” In the same list of items, another medicine was quoted at a cost of one-third to 50 per cent of the regular price, but shipment was normal shipment. The Kaieteur News never mentioned that as part of the procurement process, the specific supplier, NEW GPC, provides other items free of cost as additional service to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Based on the procurement for 2011, the free items will amount to about 10 per cent of the 2011 order quantity for certain high volume items. The medicines included as part of the free supplies in 2012, and at about 10 per cent of the 2011 volumes are cephalexin tabs, normal saline injections, amoxicillin tablets, amoxilclav tablets, amoxicillin suspension, dimennyhydrinate injection, rampril tablets, omeprazole tablets, atorvastatin tablets, depo provera tablets, ketoconazole cream, streptokinase injection, betasome cream, hydrocortisone cream and silsulfazine cream.

Distortion campaign
The Kaieteur News, as customary in its distortion campaign, also ignored that another benefit derived from the present system is the no-cost storage the government obtains from the NEW GPC.
Presently, the NEW GPC incurs cost of more than $150 million annually to provide free warehousing for the ministry. Proper storage of medicines is critical. The truth is that the Health Ministry and GPHC do not and have never had the warehouse capacity to store all the medicines they have in stock. Even with a new warehouse, which is soon to be commissioned, the ministry would have a capacity for only 50 per cent storage of the stock of medicines, and other medical supplies it maintained as inventory.
“We must recall that the NEW GPC, as one of the requirements for prequalification, demonstrated that it had the capacity to store greater than 90 per cent of the annual supply that the public sector requires. As a supplier, the NEW GPC agreed to provide the warehousing need as a non-fee service.
“While someone can make a case in some instances that a particular medicine could have been obtained at a cheaper price, the truth is that, overall, the Ministry of Health has ensured that medicines are purchased at the lowest possible price. A comparison with the international reference prices for these goods would show that the Ministry of Health procures our medicine at an overall savings, compared to the international reference price,” the statement explained.
The ministry has, over the past five years, placed emphasis on overall cost of medicine and supplies, which includes value to the patient, reduction in losses, improved quality, availability to patients and total cost of ownership. Considering the abovementioned, the ministry has increased value by: providing medicines and other supplies to patients that are within their normal shelf life – no expiration; reducing wastage by ensuring that suppliers provide better handling and storage conditions; mandating suppliers to provide higher quality drugs that meet international standards; ensuring that suppliers have storage and handling capacity that can allow them to stagger delivery to the Health Ministry and the GPHC.
“The truth is that Kaieteur News ignored that the significantly lower prices for the combined list of items, together with other services, allow the government to procure more medicines for the people of Guyana,” the statement pointed out.

i wonder who own the storage oh dont tell me its a ppp crime family

Looks like GPC playing around with the numbers to make a profit and end up selling the GPHC a 1000$ toilet seat like the US military years ago.  This is understandable, however given the political climate and shouts of corruption, govt must make sure it dots all its i and cross all its t. 

There IS a cure for what ails your type

Really now . . . on SO many levels, this is REAL eyepass and an insult to the  intelligence of Guyanese people.

(i) wha happen to the US$5million MOH warehouse on the EBD whose construction allegedly 'commenced' in 2009 - to be completed in 10 months?? http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ruct-us5m-warehouse/

It's been THREE years . . . and now alyu saying that it gon tek another year to finish!

Who was that contract awarded to again?

Really now . . . ?!

 These bastards ought to be ashamed of saying the PNC are thieves.

Govt, U.S. and Canadian embassies closing in on backtrackers

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon said evidence have supported allegations that backtracking is taking place at significant levels here, and he announced that an ongoing probe could snare old operators in the illegal business.
Dr Luncheon’s comments came on the heel of the United States urging the Guyana government to go after human smugglers, even as it concluded that this country was not fully complying with the U.S.’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, but is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with those standards.
It is believed that a number of prominent businessmen here are part of a network of backtrackers. The United States had gone further in stating in a leaked cable that publisher of the Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, was a person with a “sketchy past” was allegedly involved in “alien smuggling” and had “links to the underworld”.

Glenn Lall

The cable stated that: “He translated a shoe trading business and rumoured involvement with alien smuggling into a muckraking independent newspaper. He has also been accused of having his finger on the pulse of Guyana’s underworld, which serves his media enterprise well,” the cable said. The then political officer in the U.S. embassy in Georgetown, Benjamin Canavan had spoken with Lall, whose correct name is Mohan Lall, prior to the writing of the cable. Lall has never publicly denied the allegations. At one time when approached by this newspaper he declined to comment.
Meanwhile, in an invited comment following a news conference at the Office of the President on Wednesday as to what government was doing to  curb alien smuggling, Dr Luncheon said that would have a lot to do “with us unveiling more investigations, much more investigations in trying to come to grips with that historical period”. He assured however, that because the administration was aware of those allegations, the Home Affairs Ministry working in conjunction with the General Registrar’s Office and particularly with the American and Canadian embassies, “We have been able to penetrate those circles in Guyana that have been involved historically in this illegal activity…”
Dr Luncheon said government was doing this not only in the case of its own criminal investigations, but in support of the Americans and the Canadians, who provide information in other areas to follow-up on allegations of the past, “to see how it was done, who was implicated, and it is on that basis that we’re becoming even more aware of what we are dealing with, and how to handle that situation”. He stressed that these investigations are ongoing.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her 2012 TIP report stated that Guyana is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.
Guyanese nationals have been subjected to human trafficking in other countries in the Caribbean region. Cases of human trafficking reported in the media generally involved women and girls in forced prostitution. According to the report, the country experts expressed concern that exploitative child labour practices occur within the mining industry, agriculture, and forestry sector. “The limited government control of Guyana’s vast interior regions, combined with profits from gold mining and the prostitution that accompanies the industry, provide conditions conducive for trafficking.”
The report cited that people in domestic service in Guyana are vulnerable to human trafficking, and instances of the common Guyanese practice of poor, rural families sending children to live with higher-income family members or acquaintances in more populated areas creates conditions conducive to domestic servitude.
“Guyanese from rural, economically depressed areas are particularly vulnerable to trafficking in mining areas and urban centres. There is additional concern that young Brazilian women in prostitution are vulnerable to trafficking as well,” the report added. The report noted that the absence of formal standard operating procedures to guide officials in victim identification and protection, disincentives for reporting and working on trafficking cases, as well as lack of action to address perceived official complicity, were obstacles to progress.
The U.S. recommended that Guyana boost efforts to hold trafficking offenders accountable by vigorously and appropriately investigating and prosecuting forced prostitution and forced labour, including police, customs, and immigration officers complicit in trafficking; in partnership with NGOs, develop standard operating procedures to guide and encourage front line officials, including police, health, immigration, labour, mining, and forestry personnel in the identification and protection of forced labour and forced prostitution, ensuring that victims are not punished for crimes committed as a result of being in a trafficking situation; foster a climate of open dialogue on trafficking and encouraging people to come forward to authorities on potential cases; and consider developing a working level task force to complement the policy level task force that would be able to coordinate the day-to-day efforts of law enforcement, NGOs, prosecutors, as well as labour, health, mining, and forestry officials to address obstacles, plan strategy, and work together on specific cases. Additionally, the report cited that trafficking victims in Guyana faced disincentives to seek help from authorities, due to fear of retribution from trafficking offenders and fear of arrest.

All back-trackers should feel the full force of the law!!!

ahmmm . . . perhaps the good minister should enlighten us as to why the donor agencies refused to pay for antiretroviral drugs  ['manufactured' by the New GPC 'non-bottom house operation'?] foisted upon the Guyanese people in the early days of 'Dr' Jagdeo's tenure as President.

The corruption since then has progressed with unbelievable [and deadly] audacity and scope.

Just imagine, PPPCrime Inc started out with small stuff such as the law books scam - worth a measly couple hundred grand