With questions raised over the sole-sourcing of almost $367 million in emergency drugs from a US-based company last year, Finance Minister Winston Jordan has distanced the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) from bearing responsibility for the deal, while saying that it’s approval is usually determined by the case put forward by the procuring entity.
“If Ministry of [Public] Health or GPHC [Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation] comes to NPTAB and puts down as their reason ‘it is urgent, it is a do or die situation,’ NPTAB is not going to say, ‘no, go to open tender.’ That could take three or four months and be responsible for people dying and so on. The essence of this thing has to go back to procuring entity,” Jordan told Sunday Stabroek.
“If there a loophole, the loophole has to be at the procuring agency. For drugs to be deemed emergency is not for NPTAB to determine, that it is [for] the procuring entity,” he added.
