Sole-sourcing of $366.9M in emergency drugs in June 2017 has once again brought into question decisions by the Ministry of Public Health as documents reveal that a company, HDM Labs was handpicked over three others that went through tendering and were declared to have failed the evaluation process.
On May 23rd 2017, the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board opened tenders for the procurement of emergency pharmaceutical supplies for regional and clinic services.
The Stabroek News’ May 24th 2017 edition reported on the tender opening and the table below shows the companies with the respective bid amounts.
It is unclear when the bids were evaluated but documents provided to Stabroek News show that all three companies failed the evaluation which was carried out by a three-person committee. Persons on that committee were the MoPH’s Permanent Secretary, Collette Adams, Chief Medical Officer Shamdeo Persaud and Deputy Director of the Food and Drugs Department Jewel Sears.
