The administration has reportedly entered a deal with an insurance company for health coverage but there is no evidence that proper procurement procedures were followed. The hefty insurance package, the first of its kind to reduce pressure on taxpayers, is reportedly costing Guyana almost $40M, but did not publicly go out to tender.
The issue is now being raised by former Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy. He was also a former Health Minister also under previous administrations of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic.
According to Ramsammy yesterday, sometime earlier this year, the coalition A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government signed an agreement with a regional insurance company which has opened offices here.
The deal was struck after an announcement by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, in June that Government is moving to secure insurance for ministers and senior officials.
A number of government officials, including ministers had sought treatment abroad, but it is by no means cheap.
Ramsammy, naming the company, which is headquartered in a neighbouring country, claimed that the agreement is worth just over $38M annually and will earn about $155M by 2020, for the company.
“It is the first time ever that Ministers will have health coverage which I assume will be sought outside the country. It is a transaction that the government has entered into secretly,” Ramsammy said in a statement.
“There was no advertisement, no indication that they were interested in obtaining health insurance for ministers and their families. I am not aware that any discussion occurred with any of the insurance companies based in Guyana.”
The former Health Minister made it clear that he is not opposed to the Government covering costs of medical care for its ministers by obtaining health insurance coverage.
“But it is important that such transactions be in the public domain. Earlier this year, Minister (Joseph) Harmon insisted that government pays no bills for ministers’ foreign health care. This was not the truth. It was a deliberate misinformation.”
Ramsammy claims that he has information that ministers have traveled to Ireland, Cuba, Canada, USA and the Caribbean and these trips were paid for by the Ministry of Public Health.
“The Auditor General must take note of this. I am confident that on examination the Auditor General will discover that these costs were met by the Ministry of Public Health and or by the Ministry of Finance.”
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PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley is convinced something crooked took place in the procurement of the Ocean Flower II. He made the point at a news conference at the Magdalena Grand Hotel in Tobago yesterday after close to two hours of talks with stakeholders on the problems facing the domestic seabridge. Rowley was confident that investigations by Cabinet appointed investigator Christian Mouttet, the Integrity Commission and the Parliament’s Land and Physical Infrastructure Joint Select Committee (JSC) would discover the truth about the circumstances under which the Ocean Flower II was procured.
He said the Port Authority is now “working overtime” to acquire the services of another passenger ferry before the TT Express goes on dry dock. Expressing confidence that more vessels would be available during the upcoming winter period, Rowley said the Authority will broaden its search to all parts of the spectrum to find an appropriate passenger vessel for the seabridge.
He reminded reporters that Cabinet has already agreed to put out a tender for a new cargo vessel built to Government’s specifications.
Rowley said this arrangement could result in a two to three year contract being signed for that vessel’s usage. He said once the Spirit and the Express have undergone their long overdue maintenance, they should be able to service the seabridge for at least another two years.
Rowley disclosed stakeholders agreed to a proposal to appoint two more Tobagonians to the Port Authority’s board of directors to ensure there is no repeat of the problems now facing the seabridge. He also announced that a committee comprising representatives from Government, the Tobago House of Assembly and the private sector will be established to deal with operational issues on the seabridge.
He rejected claims by some that yesterday’s meeting was “a waste of time.” Rowley said contrary to those claims, the discussions were fruitful.
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The Government has met six of the 10 Economic Growth Council (EGC) policy recommendations targeted for implementation during the April to June quarter.
EGC Chairman, Michael Lee-Chin, made the disclosure at the presentation of the Council’s third quarterly report at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on Thursday, July 27.
The policy recommendations come under three areas of reform – business climate, specifically public procurement; asset utilisation, in particular debt reduction and State asset privatisation; and Diaspora involvement in relation to immigration.
Mr. Lee-Chin said that among the targets met in the area of business climate reform was work by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to draft the Public Procurement (Techniques, Procedures and Offsets) Regulations and Public Procurement (Reconsideration and Review) Regulations, which were completed and tabled in Parliament in May.
Additionally, he noted that the Ministry completed work to develop the framework for public debt reduction through a programme of State asset privatisation and sale.
The Chairman noted, however, that the May timeline to finalise and table the Public Procurement (Registration and Classification of Suppliers) Regulations, and complete the Handbook of Public Sector Procurement Procedures were missed.
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The prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Honourable Dr. Timothy Harris, has indicated that all tender procedures have been followed regarding the construction of the new Basseterre High School (BHS), after some posed questions as to why overseas contractors were offered the job.
Questioned at his last press conference regarding the tender process in relation to the BHS, Harris noted that all the contracts for capital projects that have been awarded were subjected to all the rules related to procurement that have been followed by his administration and will always be followed.
“We have always, for the record, have tendering and invited more than one person,” he said. “Indeed, the financial secretary and the deputy financial secretary would say we often ask for at least three tenders, particularly if the capital project is of any magnitude, and this is in the DNA of the government, that wherever public monies are to be spent, we are assured that we are getting value for money and where [people] are given contracts and they fail to perform those contracts would be aborted, that is the norm.”
He further indicated that a committee of qualified individuals from both the private and public sector was established and is responsible for making recommendations as to who will be awarded government contracts.
“In fact, we have a committee that basically makes recommendations in relation to any work assignment,” he added. “A committee comprising [people] from the private sector, from public works, from the Office of the Prime Minister under whose remit that that matter basically falls, and they relate to the relevant people in the Ministry of Finance. Everything is [an] open book.”
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The Pan American Health Organisaton/ World Health Organisation has dispatched an expert to audit the procurement process at the Ministry of Public Health and the state-run Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the ministry announced Tuesday.
“I found that it (the procurement process) was a bigger issue than I thought” Lawrence said during Tuesday’s early-morning meeting.
“I didn’t think it was as bad as I found it (but) this is the beginning of the process” of regularising operations in the wider health sector, Lawrence said.
Professor Jaime Espin Balbino of the Andalusian School of Public Health, Regional Ministry of Health is spearheading the forensic exercise which will target the operations of the MOPH and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Health Minister, Volda Lawrence (MP) said Tuesday during a meeting with officials of those entities.
The Health Ministry said PAHO/WHO is funding the cost of the audit.
Lawrence reportedly said the the audit into how things are currently done and the specific changes that will be implemented will provide the roadmap for the future to remove the existing “vast deficiencies in knowledge and manpower.”
The forensic audit comes on the heels of public complaints into the procurement process, the quality of drugs, and allegations of shortage of drugs, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in the government-run sector. The announcement of the audit comes weeks after the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) had announced a probe into government’s “emergency” purchase of more than GYD$600 million in drugs without passing through the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.
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