PPC commissioner wants matter sent to DPP

ARGUING that the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) under the watchful eyes of the Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence had rigged the procurement system to give Ansa McAl the lion’s share of the $632M drug purchase, Commissioner of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) Sukrishnalall Pasha, has reportedly recommended that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP) review the case.

According to a reliable source, Pasha made the recommendation in a minority report he compiled after declining to sign the substantive report which was prepared by the commission, headed by Carol Corbin, and submitted to the Parliament of Guyana.
In his 30-page report, the PPC Commissioner, who remains tight-lipped on the matter, accused the GPHC of rigging the procurement system to give the lion’s share of the contract to ANSA McAL. Based on his findings, Pasha recommended that the case be sent to the DPP to allow criminal charges to be administered where and if necessary.

Additionally, he called for sanctions to be imposed against those who have erred administratively, even as he laid the blame at the feet of the Public Health Minister. When contacted on Tuesday for a comment, Pasha asked that the Guyana Chronicle return a call within one hour, but subsequent calls went unanswered. However on Monday, he declined to comment on the matter at hand. “I don’t wish to speak on the issue. Whatever I did, it was supposed to be kept with some level of confidentiality,” he said.

Pasha, in his counter report which is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly by the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), acted outside of the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the investigation carried out by the PPC, according to the source. The PPC chairperson told this newspaper that the commission did not recommend sanctions against the errant public officials, noting that decisions lie with the Government and those sitting at the helm of the GPHC. Findings have confirmed that the procurement laws were breached, given the fact that the GPHC sought approval from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) after it had started to receive drugs from suppliers.

Corbin made it clear that it was never the commission’s intention to recommend disciplinary action against those who had acted outside of the law. “That was not the purpose of the investigation,” she emphasised.
Based on the Terms of Reference (TOR), the investigation was executed to determine the circumstances under which the emergency drugs were procured. Additionally, it sought to determine whether the GPHC had acted in compliance with the Procurement Act Chapter 73:05 in the procurement of emergency pharmaceuticals.

Another key aim of the investigation was to have greater understanding of the Public Health Minister’s involvement. Additionally, it was the intention of the PPC to provide a menu of measures that would allow the premier health institution to improve its procurement practices in keeping with the Procurement Act, Chapter 73:05.
In July, 2017, the Finance Minister Winston Jordan confirmed reports by the Guyana Chronicle that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) had never approved the purchase of the more than $630M in “emergency pharmaceutical supplies” for GPHC.

According to the written response supplied to the House by the Finance Minister, the GPHC had made a request for the procurement of $2.9M in emergency pharmaceutical supplies from Health2000 by way of single-sourcing. It was explained that the items were required urgently. Additionally, the hospital indicated that “it was impractical to use the Open or Restricted Method of Procurement, due to the time required to utilise those methods of procurement.” That request was not approved by the Tender Board.

The GPHC requested permission for the procurement of emergency pharmaceutical supplies to the tune of $20.8M from New GPC via single-sourcing. A similar explanation was offered, but the request was denied. The primary health care institution had also requested the procurement of emergency pharmaceutical supplies via sole-sourcing from Chirosyn Discovery at a cost of $2.1M, but that too was denied. The final request by the hospital for the reporting period was made for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies from Ansa McAl at a cost of $605.9M via sole-sourcing and like the previous three, the request was disapproved.

Top sources at the Public Health Ministry had told the Guyana Chronicle that it was the hospital’s then Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Alan Johnson, and the Finance Director, Ronald Charles, who teamed up to sole-source the drugs.
Johnson was fired in June, 2017 by the GPHC Board of Directors following “a series of lapses,” which included embarrassment of the corporation before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on May 29.

According to a top source at the ministry, following a meeting with the Public Health Minister in early February, during which the shortage of drugs was confirmed, the hospital’s finance director was summoned to a meeting by one of his superiors. It is alleged, that during the meeting, Charles was instructed to meet with Berkley Wickham, NPTAB Chairman and explain the need for the fast- tracking of the Pharmaceutical Emergency Supplies.

The senior hospital official, the source said, also needed clarification on whether there were provisions within the National Procurement and Tendering System for an addition to be made to the original bid document, given the fact that the suppliers had already bought the original document.

Additionally, the source said, Charles was constantly told by the senior official to proceed with the Emergency Supplies Bids in the “name of transparency, warning him that any attempt to obstruct the process by annulment would cause ‘eyebrows to raise.’
But the pleas by the senior hospital official, the source contended, fell on deaf ears.
“Unknowingly to his superior, Charles cancelled the bid and requested, as a matter of emergency, that the drugs be sole-sourced. And he had the backing of Johnson,” the ministry’s source maintained.

It is alleged that the finance director wrote the NPTAB Chairman requesting that the Emergency Supplies Bid Document be cancelled. In that letter, which was allegedly signed by the then CEO, Charles sought to have the emergency drugs sole-sourced.
Charles, the Guyana Chronicle was told, proceeded to compile a list of the critical drugs which was subsequently given to four suppliers: Ana McAl, New GPC, Health2000 and Chirosyn Discoveries, for the submission of quotations based on the document. Attempts, the source said, were made to have Minister Lawrence sign off on the documents, but she had reportedly declined, noting that there was an established system to be followed.

“It was the CEO who had prepared the letters for the four suppliers, telling them to proceed with the process,” the source pointed out.
According to the source, it was after the drugs were delivered at the end of February that a letter was sent to the NPTAB requesting that payments be made to the four suppliers.
When Minister Lawrence appeared before the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) in June, 2017, she denied approving purchase of the drugs.