–audit report finds

POOR storage practices at the former Ministry of Public Health and other health facilities, resulted in $950 million being wasted over three years, due to expired, spoilt and damaged drugs and medical supplies.

The situation, which occurred under the APNU+AFC administration’s time in office, left many Guyanese without needed supplies, while essential items were out of stock for long periods, and several suppliers did not deliver items valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

Over 4,000 spoilt vaccines were seen among usable supplies. Supplies were damaged in private warehouses because there were no agreements specifying storage conditions

This was revealed in a Performance Audit done by the Auditor General’s Office on the “Management of Drugs and Medical Supplies at the Ministry of Public Health and Regional Health Facilities.”

The performance audit, which covered the period January 1, 2015 to August 15, 2018, was done to assess how well the supplies were managed, given that over $3 billion was spent from 2015 to 2017 to buy supplies.

“The purpose was to determine whether the Ministry of Public Health and the Regional Democratic Councils procured drugs and medical supplies in an economic manner and managed the receipt, storage and distribution efficiently and in compliance with policies, international best practices, relevant laws, regulations and guidelines,” the audit report stated.

The Ministry of Public Health and the Regional Democratic Councils are responsible for buying and distributing drugs and medical supplies to citizens. And, according to the audit report, the audit work was hampered repeatedly because the ministry and the councils did not provide requested documents and did not respond to the audit reports.

It was stated too that poorly written contracts led to over $300 million being paid out without receiving the drugs and supplies purchased.

“As a result, the health of citizens was at risk when there were shortages due to the delays,” the report said.

There were several cases of drugs and medical supplies being out of stock.

“Poor inventory management and the absence of buffer stock at the Materials Management Units and regional health facilities led to frequent stock-outs of essential drugs and medical supplies. The units were unable to supply 43 per cent of requests from health facilities. Further, health facilities had to wait as long as 50 days to collect much-needed supplies,” the report outlined.

The report made 11 recommendations to the Permanent Secretary and the Regional Executive Officers (REO) to address the situation in the short term, to better manage drugs and medical supplies.