PAHO/WHO conducting forensic audit of procurement by Health Ministry, Georgetown Hospital
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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