Millions in drugs disbursed without proof of cost …Min. Lawrence assures loophole being closed

Jul 08, 2018 News

There are growing concerns that the Ministry of Public Health has distributed millions of dollars worth of drugs and other medical supplies to the administrative regions without providing a breakdown of the cost. This opens the door to the possibility of malpractice.
Under the procurement system established by the Coalition Government, the ten administrative regions are required to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to the Ministry of Public Health for centralized procurement of medical supplies.

Public Health Minister, Volda Lawrence

However, state auditors have difficulty establishing that the regions are receiving value for money since the regions, in most cases, have been unable to provide evidence of cost for the supplies from the Ministry. Each region is accountable for the monies it receives from Government.
It is felt that the region upon receiving the supplies should be provided with a breakdown of the cost.
Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, told Kaieteur News that United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented a computerized distribution programme, but only one component was being utilized.
“They were just using it like a stock tool to record what comes in and what went out. They were not entering the cost,” Lawrence explained.
She stated that the Ministry has appointed a Director who was trained by USAID to use all components of the programme.
“We have now begun to utilize other components of the programme. So going forward, we wouldn’t have this problem because they didn’t put in the information. They have to go back now, get all those pieces of paper relating to the cost of the supplies; find it and to put it into the system,” Lawrence stated.
She explained that the difficulty is getting the paperwork from previous years to enter the data into the system while at the same time, the same staff have to oversee the increasing amount of purchasing and intake.
“We have also had a discourse where we put in place a dual system where we have some people work in the morning, some work in the evening so that we can be able to get more out of the staff and get all the backlog work done,” Lawrence shared.
She added, “We have been able to get a large percentage out, but they have some documents that they have not found, and they have to get it from the Accounting Department which is understaffed. You understand the complications there.
“We are consistently working to ensure that they bring this matter to closure so that they would be able to show how the monies were spent and the cost for each item that they paid for it.”
The Public Health Minister stated that another matter that is complicating the accounting process is that accounting officers in the region submit their warrants late in the year, but they start receiving supplies from January 1.
Additionally, she noted that the regions were responsible for the purchase of computers which would be connected to the Ministry. So far, only Regions Five and Six have done so.
“Some of the regions accounting officers are saying that they didn’t know that they had to buy this computer, but we are working now to have that connectivity. I believe that once we get that up and running that we will find that the system is very friendly and that the type of information and data that the system can give out will be able to eliminate this issue that we have,” Lawrence outlined.

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