Audit uncovers another $1.1B in expired drugs bought under APNU/AFC regime

A recently-concluded audit into the health sector has found an additional $1.1 billion in expired medical drugs, purchased by the previous Administration that will now have to be discarded.
Government ordered the audit after over $10 billion in expired pharmaceuticals had to be dumped in recent months. The expired drugs were purchased under the coalition Government and uncovered when the new Administration took office in August 2020.

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony disclosed on Thursday, after receiving the summary report, “We proceeded to do an audit of all the regions to see whether or not we have expired medications, medical supplies, reagents and so forth. We have just concluded that audit and I just received the executive summary of that report…From that report having concluded the audit in every one of the regions, we have been able to ascertain that in the 10 regions, we have another $1.1 billion of expired medications, medical supplies, and laboratory and diagnostic supplies. These were all expired before we came into Government.”
He noted that they were able to further validate current stocks in the medical system, amounting to $11.5 million. The Minister said through these efforts, authorities were able to ascertain the status of facilities and replenish medicines before there is a shortage.
“As of now, in the 10 different regions, we have pharmaceuticals worth $5.6 billion across the different regions. We have $877 million in medical supplies in the different regions and we have laboratory and diagnostics supplies at $5 billion; which would approximate to current stock in the regions being about $11.5 billion. While we have been able to validate what was expired in those regions, we have also been working hard to replenish and to make sure that they have adequate medicines to continue doing their work,” the Minister added.
Speaking on the reasons for this situation, he explained that the Ministry had ordered the same drugs twice in 2017. Doctors have also been prescribing different medications from what is in stock, leaving these items unused.
Now, there is a centralised procurement for drugs, rather than the previous system where regions were making purchases.
“Monies that were sent to the regions are sent back to the Ministry so that we can do one big purchase. In that way, you will get more drugs for less cost because you’re buying in bulk. I think that’s the advantage of changing back the system to what it was,” he said.
In March, Dr Anthony revealed that since taking over the Health Ministry in August of 2020, more than 300 truckloads of expired medication had had to be dumped from the Materials Management Unit (MMU) – the central storage bond of the Health Ministry.
He had said that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government inherited a “crisis” in relation to the quantity of expired medication being stored at MMU. Dr Anthony revealed that from 2015 to present day, the Health Ministry has had to dump over $10 billion worth of expired drugs and materials because of bad management.
He related that the electronic system at the MMU – called MAC – has been down for quite some time and that led to the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government not having a handle on the supplies stored in the central drug bond.
“The amount of medicines we have thrown away from the MMU does not take into consideration some of the expired medicines we had at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and so that too when we look at it, we estimate it is about $3 billion worth of medicine that we had to throw away,” Dr Anthony informed.
The Minister related that in order to create space at the MMU, they had to dump close to $1 billion in drugs between August and September 2020, and another $1 billion worth between October and March. He further related that it was quite unfair to taxpayers that such large quantities of drugs have to be dumped.
“In all when we look back at our records, we found that from 2015 to now there have been close to $10 billion worth of medicines that have been thrown away. So, this is quite a significant sum of money where we purchase these medicines, they were sitting in the bond, expired there and nobody benefited from it.
“More than 80 per cent of MMU bond space was occupied with expired medicine and supplies, and, therefore, we could not have used these medicines and since August, we have been working with Food and Drug Department to start clearing out all of these expired medicines we have at the MMU. We have been able to dispose of some of them, but we still have a lot of expired drugs and medical supplies in the bond,” he added.