Some two weeks after receiving the report following a probe at the Public Health Ministry which recommended, among other things, that several senior officials at the Ministry be removed or fired, Government is yet to take action.
Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman
The Board of Inquiry (BoI) was set up late last year to probe allegations of mismanagement and malpractices within the procurement process of pharmaceuticals at the Public Health Ministry, and according to Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, the report is currently being reviewed by President David Granger.
Trotman was at time responding to questions from reporters at the post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday, where he assured that Government will be acting on the findings of the report in due course.
“The President is studying the recommendations and findings of the report and, I am certain, will act accordingly in due course and in his own deliberate time and judgment,” the Minister stated.
The BoI, led by retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Winston Cosbert, from its three-week probe, made some 21 recommendations, which it said aims “to increase transparency and improve efficiency and effectiveness in the procurement of pharmaceuticals,” at the Public Health Ministry.
The probe was triggered by allegations of staffers from the Public Health Ministry passing inside information to bidders seeking lucrative drug procurement contracts.
Among the recommendations made was for a senior official to be removed for failing to effectively carry out his duty. The BoI accused the senior official of being “wilfully evasive and deceptive” during his testimony.
“The board finds that the inconsistencies were sufficiently material to affect the truthfulness and accuracy of his testimony,” the report outlined, while recommending that he “be removed from the Ministry of Public Health due to his inability to effectively carry out the mandate of the Ministry.”
According to the BoI report, the official was approached by an accountant attached to the Ministry’s Materials Management Unit with proof that another employee was giving inside information to a bidder, but he failed to act on it. The BoI did not find sufficient, his explanation as to why there was no investigation into the matter or informed the subject Minister.
Meanwhile, the BoI also recommended criminal and legal proceedings against two companies following its probe. One of the companies against which criminal investigations was recommended is the Parika-based Caribbean Medical Supplies Inc (CSMI), which had come under criticism for being a “fly-by-night” company. CSMI was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts from the Public Health Ministry.
CMSI, which was given the sole sourcing contract, is allegedly a financier of one of the political parties in the coalition Government. In November 2015, the company, which just has an address at Parika with no sign of employees or business activity, won its first sole sourced contract to supply $35.1 million of HIV rapid test kits for the Public Health Ministry. The HIV tests kits were simply bought over the Internet and shipped into the country. When <<<Guyana Times>>>had reported on the issue, the company defended itself by accusing this newspaper of biasness.
The other company, Meditron Inc, was also fingered for not honouring its contractual obligations for a tender that it was awarded.
“It is recommended that the contract signed between the Ministry of Public Health and Meditron Inc… be brought to the attention of the honourable Minister of Legal Affairs, with a view of instituting legal proceedings since it was revealed that Meditron Inc failed to honour their contractual obligation under the terms of this contract,” the report outlined.
Blacklisted
Trinidadian companies, Scientific and Medical Products Limited (SciMed) and Western Scientific Company Limited operating in Guyana, were debarred by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for fraud and collusion practices on local projects funded by the Bank. SciMed was debarred from March 31, 2016 to October 15, 2020, for fraudulent practices. The company is a distributor of laboratory and process equipment, and exclusively represents a number of leading manufacturers in the UK.
Additionally, another four-year sanction over the same period was meted out to Western Scientific Company Limited, also over fraudulent practices. This Trinidadian company is a marketing, sales and distribution firm, specialising in the areas of scientific, clinical/medical, furniture, audio-visual, education, technical service and consultancy.
