Emphasising the notion that it supports and promotes the right to citizens to know and have access to information, the Ministry of Health in a statement issued yesterday refuted two recent articles published by this newspaper. The articles published yesterday and the previous day, were focused on the tendering process as it relates to medical supplies.In the latter of the two articles, this newspaper had pointed to the fact that the procurement of drugs and medical equipment for which two bids were opened on Tuesday at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board was never advertised.The previous article had suggested that the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (GPC) had in fact outbid another supplier by $335M. However,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, the statement yesterday asserted that “both stories are false and totally misrepresented the truth. In short they represent either total ignorance of what took place or deliberate mischievousness on the part of Kaieteur News.”According to the statement which was signed by Senior Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, “I believe Kaieteur News embarked on a path of misrepresentation in these instances because they know the truth and instead of telling the stories with the truth, they sought to present them as examples of inappropriate government behaviour.”In addition, he noted that the Ministry is always supportive of the work of the media in informing people and strongly believes the media has a responsibility to accurately inform people and not to mislead. He further concluded that the misinformation peddled in the two stories is a deliberate effort to misinform people and fits an agenda of anti-government mischief.Tenders explainedThe first article, which was a headliner, stated that the New GPC submitted a tendered price of $348M and another company, MedPharm submitted a tendered price of $13M, and suggested that the New GPC offered a price that was $335M more than the other company for the goods being requested by the Ministry of Health.“Clearly,China NFL Jerseys, the Kaieteur News article was designed to show that the New GPC had offered goods for a price that was more than $335M than the other company was offering. This was an absolute lie,Cheap NHL Jerseys,” Minister Ramsammy insisted. He added too that the story failed to mention that the tendered prices offered by the two companies were not for the same amount of line items.The Ministry of Health, he said, had requested prices for 169 products, medicines and medical supplies. In response, the New GPC offered prices for all 169 products, amounting to $348M, while MedPharm submitted prices for only two products at a price of $13M.The subsequent article, the Minister said, further made an inaccurate statement that there was no advertisement for the tender that opened on Tuesday last.“The truth is that the opening of the tender on February 15 (Tuesday) represented another step in a process that started some time ago, and Kaieteur News knows this because they have carried previous stories relating to this matter,” the Minister asserted.He revealed that an advertisement was placed on October 22 last year on the Government website www.eprocure.gov.gy inviting submissions by local and CARICOM companies to be pre-qualified to supply medicines and medical supplies to the Ministry of Health for the period 2011 – 2012. The successful companies were to be pre-qualified along with international suppliers vis-à-vis PAHO/WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and IDA (International Dispensary Agency) as suppliers for medicines and supplies procured with the Government of Guyana resources.The pre-qualification document, the Minister explained, was based on a WHO Pre-Qualification Model Tender Document and established rigid requirements for pre-suppliers.The Government, he said, had established a policy that local manufacturers (certified by the Food and Drug Analyst Department) would be given an opportunity to tender for all its certified products.The deadline for submission was November 23 last year. At that date, five companies, four local ones and one CARICOM company,Cheap NFL Jerseys Online, submitted proposals for pre-qualification.Two of the companies, Dr. Ramsammy revealed, submitted as manufacturers for a number of products, with the New GPC submitting as a manufacturer for several products and MedPharm submitting as a manufacturer of two products. On this basis, both pre-qualified as manufacturers with the right to submit prices for the manufactured products.“As manufacturers they were provided with the privilege of submitting their offers, but their prices had to be compared to the prices we could obtain from the international suppliers, the Minister said. Their pre-qualification as manufacturers did not provide an automatic approval for them to supply the medicines they are certified to produce. The prices offered for these products would still be the deciding factor,” Dr Ramsammy added.However,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, it was noted that the only company of the five that pre-qualified as a supplier for imported medicines and medical supplies was the New GPC. That entity, as a result, must offer prices that are compared with prices offered by international companies,Soccer Jerseys From China, Minister Ramsammy related.“These were totally transparent processes and were subjected to advertisement and to several newspaper and television reports. The tender process that began in November 22 last followed recommendations made by the Auditor General and was a subject of much comment by the Opposition Parties and in Parliament, the Minister further noted.Kaieteur News apologises for any misrepresentation of the information that was presented to the public and appreciates prompt explanation on the part of the Minister, as it too, supports the need for the public to have access to accurate information.
