Just a week after announcing that it had cleared a $1.2 billion contract for drugs for the Georgetown Hospital, government yesterday announced another $1.4 billion contract for the health sector.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon made the announcement that a contract to supply the Ministry of Health with some US$6.7 million (equivalent to almost $1.4B) in pharmaceuticals and medical supplies was given the no objection by Cabinet on Tuesday.
These contracts would have been awarded to the New GPC, which was selected as the sole pre-qualifier to supply drugs to the health sector, following a controversial process last year.
Luncheon had announced last July that only the New GPC had been prequalified to supply drugs to the public health sector for the period 2014-2016. This led to formal protests by Trinidad-based conglomerate ANSA McAL and a court challenge of the decision by the International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA) which said that the decision was unconstitutional.
Then in October, Luncheon acknowledged that official documentation was not sent to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) informing it of Cabinet’s no-objection to the selection, while the Health Ministry went on record during the same month about being in the dark as to which company had prequalified as it had not received correspondence from the NPTAB. The Ministry of Health subsequently announced that all bidders who did not prequalify to supply drugs to the health sector for 2014 to 2016 had been formally notified and letters were provided to substantiate the claims.
