GOVERNMENT will, this week, establish a body to investigate the procurement system of the Ministry of Public Health (MPH), as allegations of its corruption continue to surface.Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing on Friday, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said the matter was raised and discussed at Cabinet last week, and efforts have begun to have a body established to fully investigate those allegations.

“What we have are statements that have been made by certain persons, (which) came to the attention of the Honourable Minister; and so Cabinet has decided that an investigation, an inquiry, will be launched into these reports and these allegations,” Harmon told reporters.

He, however, cautioned that persons who make allegations must be prepared to substantiate those allegations at a properly constituted inquiry.

“Sometimes that is the problems you have — that sometimes someone is prepared to quietly whisper something in your ear, but they are not prepared to come to an inquiry to say that this is what we have found; this is what I know, and this is what I am prepared to say,” he said.

He noted that that attitude may pose a challenge for the inquiry, but has said that notwithstanding that likely challenge, Government views the allegations as serious and would go ahead with investigating them.

Following allegations of corruption being levelled against the procurement system, Public Health Minister Dr. George Norton called for a Commission of Inquiry to be established to investigate the system, and has submitted to Cabinet a proposal on the matter with the recommendation that the allegations be investigated. He told the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday that the Ministry of Public Health had been given assurance that medication would have been made available for the rest of the year, “and with two months more to go, we have an almost stuck-out”, he lamented.

“I am peeved, because (I, as) the minister, (am) yet again being provided with wrong information,” Dr. Norton stated. He said, too, that the MPH is being held to ransom by an anonymous letter writer “who provided us with information that suggests information was being leaked to bidders which would give them an advantage over others in the procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies”.

The Public Health Minister noted that because the issue is a sensitive one, it is best that a thorough investigation be done to ascertain who the guilty players are. He said, “Mischief is afoot, and I am worried because it will paint the Government in a bad light.”

Dr. Norton said he is unaware of the composition of the team of investigators who are to be appointed, but he called for “a commission of full integrity” to be established to do the investigation.