The Ministry of Public Health yesterday commissioned a $539 million drug bond at Kingston which is expected to improve the ministry’s storage capacity threefold, according to Minister Volda Lawrence.
The commissioning of the Central Supplies Unit (CSU) bond yesterday afternoon also saw the presence of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, Mayor of Georgetown Ubraj Narine and other members of the government.
The bond, which cost the ministry $539 million to construct, will provide 11,530 square feet of storage and office space. The new and modern facility will be operated initially by a staff of 20 persons who will handle the receiving, storing and dispatching of more than 200 drugs.
The two-storey building will satisfy Operational Safety and Health guidelines and also has a sick room for staff as well as a general manager’s office and a conference room.
Lawrence highlighted that there are also spaces for a documentation room, Chief Supply Officer room, accounts department, records room, secretarial services room, other offices and a kitchenette area. She added that the building is outfitted with all modern equipment and facilities inclusive of a fire alarm system, security systems, voice paging and modern time systems for the staff, which are all expected to work in synergy to enhance the service to the highest quality.
“Our storage capacity for supplies has increased threefold, which means that we can accommodate the expansion of our storage of non-pharmaceutical supplies and equipment for our various programmes so that we can impact positively on the provision of healthcare countrywide,” Lawrence said, while observing that the additional storage space will also help to reduce offsite locations, thus help to improve the overall functioning of the bond since it will be better organised and structured.
Lawrence told the gathering that she is elated at the completion of the facility which is in fulfilment of President David Granger’s promise on ascension to office in 2015 to fix the healthcare system. She said that at one point, the ministry was unsure of whether they would’ve “gotten there.”
The minister said that when she was assigned to the helm of the ministry in 2017, she visited the old facility that was previously situated in the compound and she noticed that workers were asked to work in a “not so fit condition for human beings” which she said could not continue.
“I recognised that the staff of the bond were operating in unhealthy and unsafe conditions and that there was no way in which their performance could be enhanced if they remained in that grimy environment. The atmosphere in the bond was dismal, it was uninspiring [and] moreover, the conditions made it impossible for proper accountability and I am not just talking about a couple of dollars, I am talking about millions of dollars of items and, as such, gave cause to continuous criticism on the ministry by the Auditor General’s office on non-adherence to stores regulations,” Lawrence explained.
She lamented that the ministry was experiencing damage and loss of costly items due to flooding and leakages, and workers were providing services under what she termed as “unbearable conditions.”
Lawrence also took a trip down memory lane and commented on the evolution of bonds over the years. She recalled that in 1982, the CSU bond was located at the Office of the Chief Pharmacist on Quamina Street before being shifted in 1984 to an annex building in Liliendaal. In 1992, it was moved to Kingston, where an old wooden building deteriorated over time until she met it in 2017; in a dismal condition, she said.
Nagamootoo also gave brief remarks and sought to address the controversy surrounding the storage of medical and other supplies by the ministry.
The Prime Minister spoke about the APNU+AFC Government’s prior usage of a private bond on Sussex Street at a cost of $12.5 million per month. Controversy had raged about the rental of the bond.
Tenure
Nagamootoo sought to explain why the government was forced to use the bond. He said that in 2015, when the Coalition Government started their tenure, they were confronted with a situation where they had a find a new bond “and to find a bond quickly.”
“So we were using for one of the locations, a bond belonging to the New GPC, a private outfit, and we were informed that the proprietors wanted their bond back and in a hurry. I spoke to Dr Bobby Ramroop and said ‘please, we would be in a problem trying to find a location in short notice to store our pharmaceutical supplies’. I pleaded with him if he could make available a piece of his bond,” Nagamootoo said.
He recalled that he received letters from Ramroop, who, explaining the measurements of the place, said that he needed the space for imports and couldn’t made any available for storage by the government.
“And I am telling you this because there is a part of history that you must know. That it is out of necessity, absolutely necessity, when we were pushed against the wall that we had to find a storage place for our medical supplies. We found a place and there was a big controversy that you know referred to as the Sussex Street bond, more or less a house that was converted into a bond because we had to store our supplies somewhere,” Nagamootoo explained.
He added that when “the newspapers started to hit at the government that we had gotten a bond that wasn’t fit for a bond,” they accepted that it was what they could’ve settled for at short notice and that it wasn’t the best of deals.
“It wasn’t then and still isn’t and that is why it was canceled. The question is what do we do, a decision had to be made to find an alternative site for a bond and I want to give credit to Minister Lawrence,” Nagamootoo added.
The government had also taken flak as the contract went to a longtime PNCR associate Larry Singh who had no experience in the business.
Deputy Permanent Secretary of Finance of the Ministry of Public Health Gledon Fogenay, Auditor General Deodat Sharma and Finance Secretary Michael Joseph also gave brief remarks at yesterday’s commissioning of the bond.
