Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), George Lewis, said that the Cabinet’s recent approval of $515 million to pay ANSA McAL for emergency pharmaceutical supplies for the GPHC is not the sole sourcing of a new batch of supplies; rather, it is payment for the previous one.
“ANSA McAL and three other companies would have supplied the GPHC with pharmaceuticals, and those pharmaceuticals were received and consumed. While I am not going (to) debate why the laws were broken, the suppliers would have supplied GPCH with those pharmaceuticals in good faith, and that, as a consequence, we have a responsibility to ensure that they are paid,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), George Lewis
“So the document (that was circulated in the media) which suggests that a second award was made, it’s not a second award. It is approval for the payment to ANSA McAL for drugs supplied. In addition to that, approval was granted for us to pay the other companies. There is a difference in figures …the initial figure was $605 million, but now we are talking about $515 million, so we only pay for what we received,” Lewis added.
The leaked secret Cabinet document outlines that the sub-committee considered and approved the procurement of emergency pharmaceuticals to the tune of $515.2 million. The request was approved on Monday last.
Lewis told this publication that there was no other way the companies could have been paid, hence the reason Cabinet’s approval was needed.
He related that changes are being made to the procurement and financial departments of the GPHC. He said that they have separated the departments, and that they are being managed independently to improve accountability and eliminate possible corrupt activities. Lewis said that they have been engaging different stakeholders to address the issue of drug shortages and utilisation.
The then Opposition, now Government, the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), vehemently railed against the sole sourcing practice.
Earlier this year, a contract was handed to ANSA McAL, a Trinidadian conglomerate, to the tune of $605 million, for which the Public Procurement Commission had launched an investigation and had found that there were breaches of Guyana’s Procurement laws in order to facilitate the purchase.
The investigation by the Public Procurement Commission had found that procurement laws had been broken.
Drug purchases by and for the nation’s premier health institutions had come under intense scrutiny earlier this year, when probity by the political Opposition had found glaring discrepancies and breaches of the laws of Guyana. It was discovered that more that 90% of the drugs’ purchases made this past year were done on an emergency basis.
