Prequalification integral to ensuring contractors supply safe drugs – former Minister

… designed to weed out counterfeit drugs, unsuitable companies

With reports surfacing that the Government intends to stop prequalifying contractors supplying drugs and medical supplies, one observer is warning about the dangers of not ensuring that companies are thoroughly screened; in particular for such critical supplies.

According to Member of Parliament and opposition point man on health, Dr Frank Anthony, prequalification is a vital system to ensure that only quality drugs make it to consumers – in this case the Guyanese public.

“You have to be assured of the quality of the drugs and one of the things that pre-qualification does is to allow you to verify whichever company is supplying (the drugs) and to ensure that you’re getting the right quality,” Dr Anthony emphasised.

Anthony noted the threat posed by counterfeit drugs, which might be available at a cheaper than average cost and thus, lure procuring entities. He said that with prequalification, one benefit is that sample batches of drugs can be taken from the company and subjected to tests to ensure quality.

In light of this, Dr Anthony emphasised the importance of prequalification, noting that to not prequalify drug suppliers will risk poor quality drugs leaking through the system.

“There are other disadvantages with it and that is the reliability of suppliers. Over the last two years the Government would have gone to procure from different kinds of people and by its own admission they were saying that some of these suppliers have been unreliable,” Dr Anthony observed.

“So I’m not sure what would be gained by not prequalifying. In fact if you go to many of the World Health Organisation procurement documents, they actually recommend that companies be pre-qualified for the supply of essential medication.”

On Thursday last, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) held its first press conference since the elections in March of its President, Deodat Indar. At the press conference, it was revealed that Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence had given the Chamber assurance that the prequalification system would be discontinued.

The GCCI Head recalled that issues related to public procurement practices had been a concern of the Chamber. According to Indar, the Minister related to the Chamber that the system was being redesigned in order to accommodate everyone.

Already, the Administration has moved doggedly away from prequalifying drug suppliers, with millions of dollars being paid to drug suppliers who were not prequalified and in some cases, not even put through a competitive, public tendering process.

On May 8, the parliamentary Opposition had fielded questions in the National Assembly to the Ministers of Public Health and Communities. All questions had been related to public procurement practices being used by the Government for drugs and medical supplies.

When a response came from Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan, it was revealed that nine out of 10 regions in Guyana did no public tendering for drugs and medical supplies between January 2016 and February 2017.

In addition, all regions indicated that no prequalification process was followed. This was all done in the name of emergencies.

GPHC

In the case of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Opposition parliamentarian Juan Edghill noted that 77 per cent of the total allocations for drugs for the Georgetown Public Hospital have been expended.

He said that when the Public Health Minister was asked about the amount of money spent on drugs and medical supplies for the Georgetown Public Hospital for January and February 2017, it was revealed that some $2 billion has already been expended.

This represents almost 77 per cent of the total allocations for the year. However, Edghill pointed out that among the questions to the Ministers was whether any of the companies were pre-qualified. The former Junior Finance Minister noted that the answer was “no”.

Pre-qualification is an important part of ensuring quality assurance when works are done or goods supplied for the Government. In this instance, contractors are usually invited to apply to NPTAB so that they can be pre-qualified or placed on a shortlist for future projects according to World Health Organisation standards. In the case of drugs and medical supplies, companies are expected to have adequate warehouse facilities, staff, security, in addition to appropriate certification and an emphasis on sanitation.