One of the Caribbean’s leading manufacturing giants, in repudiating yet another misleading report in a local notorious newspaper, is urging politicians to focus on the real issues in the health sector rather th
Kaieteur News Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris
an embarking on a campaign aimed at smearing the reputations of others.
NEW GPC INC on Saturday made it clear that it has supplied all drugs for all its contracts with the Government in 2015, including all rollover contracts.
The pharmaceutical manufacturing company was responding to the fake news item published in Saturday’s edition of the notorious Kaieteur News under the headline “$1B drug contract awarded three days before 2015 elections… NEW GPC fails to deliver – Ministry of Public Health.”
The manufacturing giant posited that the article is blatantly erroneous, noting that evidence is available to confirm that all contracts, which were awarded to the company, were honoured.
“The delivery notes and other necessary documents are available as proof of this statement and available for inspection,” the firm stated.
NEW GPC also noted that the Auditor General’s Office, which would have conducted their audit during 2016, can attest to the veracity of its statements.
The company has observed that the KN’s article is a word for word reprint of the identical story carried by the newspaper on May 12, 2015, under the headline, “US$12.8M drug contract to NEW GPC”. The only addition is the claim NEW GPC did not deliver any of the pharmaceuticals for which it won the bids to supply.
Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall
It also called out the Stabroek News for falsely reporting that a $400 million contract for drugs to the Georgetown Public Hospital was awarded to NEW GPC.
The NEW GPC, one of the local companies sidelined in the awarding of a $606 million contract to ANSA McAL for “emergency drugs” to the Georgetown Public Hospital, said it only obtained an order for $20 million of medical supplies in 2017 –- which were already delivered.
“We do not know if this was an ‘emergency’,” the company noted.
NEW GPC said it notes the billions of dollars in sole sourced contracts to other pharmaceutical suppliers, including ANSA McAL in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
“We expect the authorities would have better explanations for the contracts that were all sole sourced, other than for “emergencies”, which was also the explanation for the Albouystown “warehouse” lease,” the company stated.
The NEW GPC said it is concerned about the apparent compulsion by public officials to use the KN to smear the reputation it has laboriously rebuilt over the last two decades.
Under the circumstances, the company called upon the politicians to desist from using fake news as diversionary tactics from serious problems in the health sector.
“It is our fiduciary duty to the shareholders of NEW GPC, which includes the Government, to leave no stone unturned to defend their interests. The NEW GPC prides itself on its professional approach, as the leading Caribbean manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, to maintain the supply chain in an area of national life where it is literally a matter of life and death for our citizens,” the company stated.
One of the problems in the health sector is concerning the deliberate creation of an emergency shortage of drugs at the Georgetown Public Hospital, which would have caused deaths and aggravated illnesses in patients lacking medication.
Many stakeholders including civil society, transparency groups and political leaders have criticised the Government for using the health sector as a playing field for corrupt activities.
Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence recently admitted that ANSA McAL was handed the multimillion-dollar contract to “fast-track” the supplies of drugs to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Lawrence also said that ANSA McAL donated four refrigerators to the hospital, something which no other company, which has been supplying the hospital with drugs over the years has done.
