…on sole sourcing pharma storage
Prezzie’s got to take a deep breath and a hard look at what’s going on (going down?) in his Administration. For what it’s worth, most folks still don’t think he’s involved in the daily liturgy of hanky-panky greeting the citizenry in the newspapers every morning. But the buck does stop with him, doesn’t it?
We don’t even have to regurgitate the past – just consider the revelations that came out in Parliament when the Government requested almost ,000,000,000 from the CONTINGENCY FUND. That’s a fund for taking care of UNFORESEEN circumstances. Now don’t think what your Eyewitness’s going to describe is from any straightforward narrative from Minister of Health Norton. It had to be dragged out from him like molars being yanked out with a pair of pliers – without any cocaine!
First was an innocuous line item to pay M for “storage of drugs”. Now Minister Norton has breathed fire and brimstone for years about the past Government storing pharmaceutical purchases at the warehouse of the company that supplied a large chunk of the drugs – the NEW GPC. But that’d been for free. So the PPP MPs immediately smelled a rat – a big dead rat. And then the sordid story was slowly and painfully revealed.
The M was for two months’ “security” on a warehouse that was not even constructed. Emergency??!!! So in effect the Government was bankrolling the facility – which photos revealed didn’t even have storage racks!! It was in fact a “bottom house” in Albouystown!! Asked why they weren’t using NEW GPC’s warehouse, the Minister blurted out they’d received a bill after the latest pre-qualification bid for a rental of M/month from that company. So it sounded like the Government was saving .5M monthly, no?
No!! The NEW GPC’s warehouse’s 74,000 square feet area makes theirs 4 times cheaper per square foot – and WITH tri-level air conditioning that pharmaceutical supply-chain management demands. NEW GPC’s new charge (after years of giving it away for free) also included testing facilities, security, IT referrals for access, etc. But worst of all, in light of Minister Norton’s almost evangelical fervour in the recent past about “sole sourcing” of pharma – the warehouse was sole sourced!!
But the hanky-panky didn’t end there. Quizzed as to who certified the bottom-house facility for the nation’s drugs – where thousands of lives are at stake – Norton grudgingly revealed it was HIS OWN MINISTRY!!! Incestuous??
And finally there was no answer as to why the Government’s billion-dollar pharma warehouse at Diamond wasn’t tasked with storage – Dr Norton had vehemently insisted.
This isn’t a “sweetheart” deal. It’s a “married couple” deal – who’ve been in bed for a long time!!
…on staffing
A statement by the Town Clerk of Georgetown, Royston King, illustrated to a “t” why Government at all levels in Guyana is in trouble – and taking us poor citizens down with them. Asked by this newspaper why City Hall isn’t paying its workers on time, the #1 member of the Gang of Four revealed the problem isn’t that City Hall is “overstaffed” – it’s just “under financed”!
Isn’t that something?? So all those businessmen facing bankruptcy because sales’ve dried up and their cash registers just aren’t ringing over shouldn’t be worried and make cuts in their staffing or spending. Naaah!! Not to worry…they’re just “underfunded”!!
And that’s the attitude of the Central Government also, isn’t it? Spend $500M on the Jubilee Park that’ll be used for a day! Spend $400M to widen Carifesta Ave for the Caricom HoG meeting! And then claim there’s no money to give Public Workers a raise.
Hey!! It’s only money. Our money!!
…on reinstatement
Receiving word he’d been reinstated as CEO of the GPHC, Michael Khan uttered the Muslim equivalent of “if God wills it” – Inshallah! But now Minister Norton has reversed the decision of the Board of the “autonomous” institution.
Seems Khan needs the “will” of the Minister, not God!
