THE PEOPLE’S Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on Monday backpedalled on their thoughts of sole sourcing and issued a warning to the Government to not go down that road.During the PPP tenure in office, it allowed New GPC Inc, a company owned by Bobby Ramroop, a close friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, to enjoy a monopoly on procurement of medical drugs.

This decision was heavily criticised by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), which was then in opposition.

On assumption to office, the Public Health Ministry announced that it will do away with the monopolistic procurement arrangement involving New GPC, but according to reports, sole sourcing still continues.

On Monday, Rohee criticised the PPP for doing what the PPP did when it was in power and called the Government’s action “double standard”.

According to him, Chairman of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) Hamilton Green used a single contractor for the Core House Initiative.

“We were criticised by the APNU+AFC for sole sourcing and we will continue to criticise the Government for their actions because we intend to be equally critical of them,” said the Party’s General Secretary.

Cabinet had, in January, approved the sum of $700M for the purchase of essential drugs and other pharmaceutical supplies for health facilities in all 10 administrative regions.

In approving the $700M for fresh supplies, the Government had opted to implement a fair and open bidding process for all suppliers in the pharmaceutical industry to get an opportunity to secure contracts.