Dear Editor,
When you read the 2018 Auditor General (AG) report on the procurement and supply of medicines for our citizens, it brings a feeling of sadness and frustration for the average Guyanese who depend on our healthcare system to give them a better life.
The report highlights the gross mismanagement of our tax dollars and how it is benefiting a few while the majority suffers from a poor healthcare system.
The first violation highlighted by the AG is the $52M paid to suppliers in 2015 and as of 2018, the items have not been delivered to the ministry. It has been over three years since these suppliers were paid and we need the ministry to tell us what happened to these items and our money. The second is the exorbitant amount paid for drugs in Region 6. For two items, they paid a mind-blowing 1600% more than what we would pay if they followed the correct process. How can we stay silent and watch our monies go down the drain? The third issue in the report is the 11 items where the same Region paid 300% more than what would normally be paid for the same items. And finally, the AG summarised that the ministry could have saved over $50M of our hard-earned money if they had followed the correct process. My friends, this smells of corruption at its highest level and we must not allow this to continue any longer. We must remember that the MoPH has a long track record of breaching the procurement process in order to serve the interests of very few friends of APNU while we all suffer. They paid $256M in rent for a bottom house to store our medicines, which put the quality of those medicines at risk that can cause serious illness to patients. They broke the procurement policy to give a T&T company drug contracts while deliberately side-lining locally-established companies.
On March 2, this kind of madness must stop; we cannot afford to have this kind of malpractices with our hard-earned tax dollars.
Sincerely,
Malcolm Watkins
