Despite pronouncements that government breached the laws of Guyana to award a $605M drug contract to one of its corporate supporters, the Administration has once again sidelined the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to once again sole source in excess of half a billion dollars in drugs from Ansa McAl.
The leaked secret Cabinet document outlines that the sub-committee considered and approved the procurement of emergency pharmaceuticals to the tune of $515.2M.
The sole sourcing practice was vehemently railed against by the then opposition, now government, the coalition A Partnership for national Unity Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC).
Based on the contents of the document seen, the request to bypass NPTAB was submitted by the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan and seeks to waive the competitive bidding and evaluation process in favour of sole sourcing the emergency supplies from Ansa McAl.
The award of the contract is reminiscent of a similar contract that was handed to Ansa McAl to the tune of $605M, for which the Public Procurement Commission had launched an investigation and had found that there were breaches of Guyana’s Procurement laws in order to facilitate the purchase.
Ansa McAl is the company that had built a multi-million-dollar Arch which was donated to the APNU/AFC Administration, subsequently erected on the East Coast Demerara (ECD) Highway.
…as Govt bypasses Tender Board to handpick ANSA McAL for $515M purchase
Despite pronouncements that Government breached the laws of Guyana to award a $605 million drug contract to one of its corporate supporters, the Administration has again sidelined the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to once again sole source in excess of half a billion dollars in drugs from ANSA McAL.
The leaked secret Cabinet document outlines that the sub-committee considered and approved the procurement of emergency pharmaceuticals to the tune of $515.2 million.
The sole sourcing practice was a strategy vehemently railed against by the then Opposition, now governing coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC).
The request to bypass NPTAB was submitted by Finance Minister Winston Jordan and seeks to waive the competitive bidding and evaluation process in favour of sole sourcing the emergency supplies from ANSA McAL.
The award of the contract is reminiscent of a similar contract that was handed to ANSA McAL to the tune of $605 million, for which the Public Procurement Commission had launched an investigation and had found that there were breaches of Guyana’s procurement laws in order to facilitate the purchase.
ANSA McAL is the company that had built a multimillion-dollar arch, which was donated to the APNU/AFC Administration and subsequently erected on the East Coast Demerara (ECD) Highway.
The request was approved on Monday last and bears the signature of the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon and the decision circulated to the Ministers of Finance and Public Health.
The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) was mum yesterday on the recent awarding of a US$154,154 contract to Trinidadian company, Western Scienti-fic, which was accused earlier this year of delivering expired or nearly expired drugs to the Ministry of Public Health.
At last week’s post-cabinet briefing, Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced that the company had secured a contract for the procurement of Sysmex reagents for the National AIDS Programme Secretariat.
The award of the contract to Western Scientific will raise further questions about the quality of the evaluation committees that are assessing the various bidders and whether the track record of the bidders is being taken into account. The NPTAB had said that it was going to widen the pool of evaluators. Concerns have been expressed in the past that evaluators are coming from the ministries and entities which are the procuring agencies and therefore the process can be contaminated…..
ENERGY Minister Franklin Khan yesterday questioned how attorney Nyree Alfonso was recruited under the former People’s Partnership (PP) government in 2013 to find a replacement for the MV Warrior Spirit and her law firm joined a group of companies which tendered for that replacement vessel.
Khan also asked how Inter-Continental Shipping Limited (ICSL), which was not invited to tender for that vessel, ended up replacing Alfonso’s firm and winning the bid. He said this resulted in the procurement of the Super Fast Galicia which replaced the Warrior Spirit on the domestic seabridge.
ICSL are the brokers for the Galicia which is owned by the company Trans-Med.
Khan posed these questions to the Port Authority’s board of directors as the Parliament’s Land and Physical Infrastructure Joint Select Committee (JSC) continued its enquiry into the domestic seabridge at Tower D of the Portof- Spain International Waterfront Centre.
Describing the situation as “curiouser and curiouser,” Khan told Port chairman Alison Lewis, “If that my dear lady, is not at best impropriety, I don’t know what is.” In response to Khan’s questions, Lewis said Alfonso was retained by the former transport ministry in 2013 to assist with the procurement of a replacement for the Warrior Spirit.
The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) expresses grave concerns, over the continued flagrant violations and breaches of the procurement laws by the APNU/AFC Administration, as it relates to tendering and award of contracts, specifically, in the public health sector.
A recent announcement by the Ministry of the Presidency stated that Cabinet has awarded multi-million dollar contracts to specific suppliers for the procurement of medical supplies. These suppliers are: Trans Continental Medical Products Limited (TCMPL) – $675,575 USD, Western Scientific Company Limited – $154,154 USD, Caribbean Medical Supplies Inc – $27.3M, Eureka Medical Laboratories Incorporated – $92.1M and Diamed Caribbean Incorporated – $94,659 USD.
