… several multi-million dollar contracts for pharmaceuticals awarded

CABINET on Tuesday noted the award of over $939M in contracts to several companies for the procurement of pharmaceuticals to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
On Friday, Cabinet Secretary and Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said a total of $939, 222, 963 was awarded to four companies with $490, 558,000 being awarded to the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC), $326, 104,000 to International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA), $96, 245,000 to Ansa Mc Al Trading Limited and $26, 314,000 to Global Health Care Supplies Inc.
Additionally, five companies were awarded contracts for the provision of medical supplies to the GPHC; Global Health Care Supplies Inc. was awarded a contract in the sum of $3,799, 464, Caribbean Medical Supplies Inc. a contract for $7, 806, 000, IPA, $56, 061, 000, while Meditron and New GPC Inc. were awarded $12, 081,000 and $52, 072, 000 respectively.
Meanwhile, Bounty Farms Limited was awarded a contract for the procurement of feed for the Guyana Livestock Development Authority for 2017 to the tune of $23,619,464. Under the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, an increase in contract cost of US$312, 399 was awarded to Sheladia Associates Incorporated (United States of America) and TYPS Consulting Engineering and Architect (Spain) in association with E and A Consultations Incorporated (Guyana) for the provision of supervision consultancy services for the East Coast Demerara roadway four-lane extension from Better Hope to Belfield Village.
The initial contract sum stood at US$1,998,500.00.
Additionally, US$159,753 has been awarded to Innovative Design, Engineering and Analysis (IDEA) International Incorporated for the provision of consultancy services to support the expansion of the monitoring for results (M4R) Implementation to cover all programmes of the Public Security Sector, under the Ministry of Public Security.
Meanwhile, when asked for an update on the state of the investigation into the payment of contractors for drugs which were never delivered, the Minister of State said, Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence is addressing the issue and noted that Lawrence “has been very aggressive insofar as getting contractors who have been awarded those contracts to supply those drugs on time and the right quantity and right expiry date.”
Harmon said too that the Public Health Minister and other officials visited the New GPC Inc. bond where expired drugs were being stored. Those were recovered and officials are currently inventorying the items. “Those that need to be destroyed will be destroyed, but the ministry is taking firm measures with respect to the purchasing of pharmaceuticals …they’ve laid out a new system for procurement and once those systems have been adhered to, we should have a better flow of pharmaceuticals going to the hospital and health centres for the benefit of the Guyanese people.”
The Minister of State clarified that the Ministry of Public Health removed the items from New GPC because the government’s contract with the company has ended. He said the pharmaceuticals retrieved were held over from the contract and noted that “it was important to ensure we did not have anything stored there, so that the company could actually bill us for rent…so we didn’t have to pay rent for a lot of items which have been expired.”