As the dispute over the selection of one pre-qualifier for the supply of drugs to the public health system continues, questions have been raised by tenderers over the failure of the procuring entity to notify them of the award as is required by law.
To date the Ministry of Health (MOH) has not written to any of the companies that bid for pre-qualification notifying them that they had lost and in which area although this is mandated in Section 6 of the Procurement Act.
“Although with all of this they still have not yet notified that we were not qualified. None of the companies have received communication to this end,” CEO of ANSA McAl Beverly Harper told Stabroek News on Saturday.
Section 6 of the Procurement Act provides for the procuring entity to communicate the results of the prequalification proceedings to all those who have submitted applications to prequalify. This is to enable them to ascertain the basis under which they were not prequalified and to request a review if they were not satisfied. The procuring entity is also obliged to communicate, upon request from a supplier who has not been prequalified, the grounds therefor.
International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA) has since moved to the courts to nullify the declaration of New GPC as the lone drug supplier for the country and in the court documents cites the MOH’s violation in not notifying the company of its failure.
The company says that it only learned of the contract award to the New GPC though the media on a reported announcement made by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on July 23, 2014.
“That the applicant was never notified of the said decision by the NPTAB or by any other source before the announcement of the 23rd of July 2014,” IPA stated in the court document.
Further, the Company’s CEO Lloyd Singh stated that on July 25, 2014, he wrote to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health pursuant to Section 6 of the Procurement Act and received an acknowledgement letter, which said “the matter is currently with NPTAB (National Procurement and Tender Administration Board)”.
However another letter sent on July 30, 2014 again to the MOH, protesting NPTAB’s finding that the applicant did not satisfy the prequalification requirement, has not been acknowledged to date.
Stabroek News spoke with a NPTAB official who said that the agency should not be blamed for companies not being notified as the Procurement Act specifies that it is the obligation of the respective procuring entity.
“You can’t blame us …you were at the procurement symposium where we spoke and warned (procuring entities) about not notifying. It is in the Act and they should follow it,” the official said.
Asked if there were penalties attached to the procuring entity’s non-compliance with the Procurement Act, the official said that he was not aware but suggested that the newspaper carefully analyze sections of the Act that speaks to notification of awards.
Former Auditor General and commentator Anand Goolsarran says that the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement on July 23 of an award does not count as official notification and that it should have been done as required by law.
“There was, however, no evidence that the six unsuccessful companies were informed of the results of the prequalification exercise. Needless to mention, the 23 July 2014 announcement by the Head of the Presidential Secretariat does not satisfy the requirements of Section 6 of the Procurement Act,” Goolsarran said.
This is not the first time the Ministry of Health has come in for strong criticism in the way it has handled the notification of contract awards as Indian health firm Fedders Lloyd in their protest over the award of the Specialty Hospital contract had also stated that it learnt of the award by way of the press.
The company had also written to the Ministry of Health informing of their dissatisfaction in the way the contract award was made public. Several bidders spoken to by this newspaper have also lamented the seeming bypass of Section 6 of the Procurement Act by procuring entities as it relates to contract award notification.
“Not just Ministry of Health, most of these government ministries don’t have time with the other bidders, is like when they select a winner to (hell) was everybody else…you don’t have the time to check see if according to your documents the person who win had everything in order and you can protest,” one company representative asserted.
“Notify who? If you were to look at 1,000 contracts for this year I can put my head on a block that 999 of the other companies that tendered for whichever project never yet receive a letter, a call, a nothing to say ‘Your company lost and xyz is why’ Never yet,” another contractor stated.
