Govt once again sole sourcing from Ansa McAl, this time $515M in drugs
…as Secret Cabinet memo surfaces
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.
… more
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