Health Ministry commissions $161M Diamond drug bond extension

The entrance to the $161 million bond extension at Diamond (Photo by Terrence Thompson)
The entrance to the $161 million bond extension at Diamond (Photo by Terrence Thompson)

Three years after government faced a scandal over the rental of a Sussex Street drug bond from a party member for millions of dollars, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday commissioned a 428.5 square metre bond extension at its Diamond, East Bank Demerara facility, costing some $161 million.

As she urged the Minis-try of Communities and heads of Guyana’s other nine administrative regions to follow suit in building their own storage spaces, Minister of Public Heath Volda Lawrence underscored the role the investment serves in the timely provision of healthcare services and preventing wastage.

“The rental of buildings has been quite a fiasco in Guyana but here we are, a positive for the ministry,” Lawrence told attendees at the commissioning of the facility, which is located at First Avenue, Diamond, East Bank Demerara.

Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence (second from left) and other officials of the ministry take a tour of the new facility (Photo by Terrence Thompson)

“…We will now be able to reduce the number of offsite locations for the storage of our supplies,” she added.

Government had spent some $265 million in rental for the bond in Sussex Street, Albouystown, owned by PNCR member Larry Singh from July, 2016 to March, 2018.

The disclosure that government was paying Singh, of Linden Holding Inc, rental of $12.5 million per month for a building he had only purchased mere months before being given a sole sourced contact had attracted significant criticism.

Following the fiasco, Lawrence announced that government was scaling down on rentals of “all privately owned bonds” and it was hoped that the money saved in rentals can go towards the upgrading of the ministry’s storage and other related systems. “This year, we are focusing on us being able to stock our own medications… cutting back costs and investing in the sector itself this year,” Lawrence had said.

The Auditor General’s report over the years had also admonished the ministry over a number of practices.

Making reference to the reports, which had in the past cited the poor storage and rentals of facilities not in keeping with best pharmaceuticals practices, Lawrence said that the bond extension, which has additional capacity for 284 pallets, was testimony to her ministry’s commitment to correcting those infractions.

“This is a demonstration to the Auditor General’s Office that the Ministry of Public Health takes seriously his comments in his yearly reports. One of this has to do with the adherence of the storage regulations. We don’t want to flout the storage regulations, but capacity was one of those things that inhibited us from being able to exercise fully the regulations,” Lawrence said.

The new facility is attached to the ministry’s current 20,000 square metres Health Supply Chain Management Complex and Materials and Management Unit warehouse.

Storage of drugs over the years has been a major issue, with expired drugs valued more than $34 million discovered at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and several Health Centres in Region Four, according to the 2017 Auditor General’s report, which also reported similar findings albeit on a smaller scale at health centres in regions Three, Seven, Eight and Nine.

Lawrence said central government, seeing the need for the storage facilities for pharmaceuticals, invested in the bond and local government can be inspired to do the same. “We recognised that there was an urgent need for us to make an investment. Why not have our own place, invest in a building whereby [we] can be able to provide these services,” she said.

The Ministry of Finance was singled out for special commendation as Lawrence thanked them for listening to her ministry when they presented their ministerial budget and made the necessary provisions so that the project could be realised.

“This extension can help us to better manage the items within the purview of the MoPH because it means then that we can maximise the distribution when persons come from the far-flung regions, they would just have to make one stop, instead of having to make several stops. Our inventory system and our process helps to show when we will have stocks out and when we need to order and all of that is going to be significantly improved because of the additional capacity we have to store our medical supplies. They will have to make one stop instead of multiple stops,” the minister said.

“Even as we expand within the Ministry of Public Health, I trust that this would motivate the other regions that they would take seriously the building of storage facilities within our ten administrative regions so that they can also be able collect their supplies, their quarterly supplies, store it in their regions so that their distribution of medical supplies can be timely to the far-flung regions. We have started the ball rolling and look forward to the Ministry of Communities getting on board with building other facilities in the other administrative regions,” she added.

The MPH has vowed to continue to better its provision of pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies and Lawrence announced that the lands to the left of the current bond at Diamond were “being eyed” by her ministry for a possible similar project.