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With General Elections set for Monday, concerns have been raised at the expedited release to the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) of over $2B for the supply of drugs to the health sector, none of which has yet been delivered.

Sources say the release of the entire amount upfront is never done and is a sign that government is trying to ensure that none of these big-ticket contracts would be snagged were the elections to see the removal of the PPP/C.

Contracts awarded to New GPC for the supply of drugs and other items to the public health system have been the source of fierce controversy for the last decade because many were single-sourced and now because the company is the only pre-qualified bidder in a new system that has been challenged by analysts as unfair. New GPC had been favoured with many of these controversial contracts under the tenure of former President Bharrat Jagdeo and this has continued under the Donald Ramotar administration. New GPC is owned by Jagdeo’s friend, Bobby Ramroop.

A source at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) told Stabroek News that the tenders for the drugs were not done through that body. The source suggested that maybe this was because only the New GPC has been pre-qualified to supply drugs to the Ministry of Health and the bids were sent directly to that ministry to facilitate payments.

“This is cause for concern because Monday is elections and you are rushing to have a cheque cut today, the last working day before the elections? Something does not add up?” one source said.

“We know that for certain contracts we give what is called a mobilisation amount and is most times about 25% of the total contract award, but to give all of the monies for drugs in lieu makes no sense and smells of corruption, corruption, corruption,” the source added.

Stabroek News was told by a Ministry of Finance source that only yesterday a cheque equivalent to US$6,730,526.15 was made out by the Ministry of Finance and delivered to the New GPC for the third and final set of payments for drugs to the Health Ministry.

According to a source, the expediting of the cheque from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Health was ordered by a senior official of the Health Ministry and a directive given that the payments be completed by yesterday.

The source informed that while invoices were submitted by the Ministry of Health, up to press time yesterday none of the drugs was delivered.

According to the Cabinet documents seen by Stabroek News, Cabinet at its meeting on the 14th of April gave its no-objection to a contract for US$1,054,000 to New GPC for supplies to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

According to another document, following a meeting on April 21st, Cabinet gave its no-objection to the award of a contract for US$6.7M to New GPC for the supply of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to the Ministry of Health.

Efforts yesterday to contact Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health Leslie Cadogan for comment proved futile. This newspaper has been trying to arrange a meeting with Cadogan since the announcement of the first contract award. He has twice given an appointment date but later called to cancel.

On April 15th last, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon announced that cabinet had given its no-objection to the procuring of over $1.2B in drugs. This, he explained, was for the purchase of medical supplies ($219.8M) and for the procurement of drugs ($1.03B) for the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

Asked by Stabroek News then if the procurement was in keeping with purchasing trends of the Ministry of Health, he said that he could not state at the said time but pointed out that the demand for drugs at the Ministry of Health’s facilities has surpassed the amounts mentioned in the bids.

Then just a week after announcing that it had cleared the $1.2 billion contract for drugs for the Georgetown Hospital, Luncheon announced another $1.4 billion contract for the health sector.

The Cabinet Secretary made the announcement that a contract to supply the Ministry of Health with some US$6.7 million (equivalent to almost $1.4B) in pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, was given the no objection by Cabinet on April 21st.

This contract was also awarded to the New GPC, which was selected as the sole pre-qualifier to supply drugs to the health sector, following a controversial process last year.

Luncheon had announced last July that only the New GPC had been prequalified to supply drugs to the public health sector for the period 2014-2016.

This led to formal protests by Trinidad-based conglomerate ANSA McAL and a court challenge of the decision by the International Pharmaceuti-cal Agency (IPA) which said that the decision was unconstitutional.

Then in October, Luncheon acknowledged that official documentation was not sent to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) informing it of Cabinet’s no-objection to the selection, while the Health Ministry went on record during the same month about being in the dark as to which company had prequalified as it had not received correspondence from the NPTAB. The Ministry of Health subsequently announced that all bidders who did not prequalify to supply drugs to the health sector for 2014 to 2016 had been formally notified and letters were provided to substantiate the claims.