Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) board has trashed its executive management and the Office of the Director of Public Procurement (ODPP) over their conduct in the drug contracts that President Joyce Banda recently cancelled.
CMST board chairperson Evelyn Itimu last Thursday said ODPP had no business adding new suppliers to the trust’s list because the exercise of identifying contractors is the preserve of the trust’s internal procurement committee (IPC).
Itimu also hit at her executive management, saying the list of companies they selected to supply cholera, malaria and diabetes drugs included a supplier who, two years ago, delivered cholera drugs containing moss.
“There is a procedure which is supposed to be followed when doing such procurement. When CMST CEO [Feston Kaupa] briefed me about the ‘No Objection’ which had come from the ODPP, I raised eyebrows because, on the list, there was a supplier who gave us bad cholera drugs which were later returned by CMST because they contained moss.
“I asked the CEO how he could trust the same supplier to supply the same drugs. I refused to sign for those transactions because I questioned the criterion which was used to select the suppliers. I also queried why ODPP added some suppliers to the list,” said Itimu.
She added: “If the suppliers were chosen on the basis of their past record, then the other supplier would not have appeared on the list because their past record is not good.”
Two weeks ago, Weekend Nation revealed that President Banda cancelled four emergency contracts worth $2 259 242 (about K890. 7 million) to supply cholera, malaria and diabetes drugs.
Presidential press secretary Steven Nhlane defended the decision at the time, saying she has powers to directly intervene if things are not going well as was the case in this matter.
The four companies whose contracts were cancelled are Dawa Limited of Kenya and three local companies—Sonali Pharmaceuticals Limited, World Wide Pharmaceuticals and Intermed Commodities.
These, according to the trust, were chosen based on their previous track records although this week, the trust disavowed its own decision, claiming it was flawed.
ODPP allowed the trust to proceed with the emergency drug procurement on humanitarian grounds but also directed that the RFQ [request for quotations] be extended to three more firms—Missionpharma, Cipla and Dawa.
But ODPP spokesperson Mary Mbekeani on Monday said their office suggested more companies to be involved in the emergency drug procurement to allow for adequate competition and transparency in the transactions.
Said Mbekeani in an e-mailed response: “In submitting the request for approval, they submitted a short list of only five suppliers. Whenever this office notices that the list is very short, it suggests to the procuring entity to add more names.
“This is to generate meaningful competition. The names are sourced from ODPP’s database. In the case at hand, these entities had dealt with [CMST] previously. If the procuring entity has information that any of the additional names are unsuitable, the entity is at liberty to bring that information to the attention of the director [of ODPP].
“As regulator, the ODPP is keen to ensure a level-playing field so that qualifying entities are not unfairly excluded from a procurement exercise.”
She said Section 30 (11) of the Public Procurement Act (PPA, 2003) provides that use of a method other than open tender or request for proposals in case of consultancy services is subject to the prior approval of the director of public procurement.
“[CMST] sought the director’s agreement to use restricted tender method. The law [Section 30 {3}] states that Restricted Tender may be used in the following cases: [a] When the goods, works or services are only available from a limited number of suppliers, all of whom are known to the procuring entity [and b] when the time and cost of considering a large number of tenders is disproportionate to the value of the procurement,” explained Mbekeani.
CMST public relations officer Herbert Chandilanga on Wednesday said the trust’s management has worked with the board to correct all issues over the transactions.
“Indeed there were concerns along the way. Management and the board have worked together to address the concerns,” he said.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Committee on Health and Population member Grenenger Msulira on Thursday claimed that the committee has established that Sadm Pharmaceuticals, which has just been contracted to supply quinine drugs to CMST after President Banda cancelled the initial contracts, took nearly three years to deliver some drugs they were contracted to supply to the trust in two months.
He said this in an interview on the sidelines of his committee’s visit to CMST main warehouse at Kanengo in Lilongwe.
“We have found that Sadm were given a contract around 2009 to supply drugs within two months, but they have just supplied those drugs just a few weeks ago after almost three years have elapsed,” said Msulira, who is also Member of Parliament for Kasungu East Constituency.
But Sadm managing director David Bisnowaty on Thursday said his company delayed to supply the drugs because of the recent acute forex shortages in the country.
“It was not two months supply period. We were required to supply the first consignment of the drugs in six months and the other consignment in 12 months. The two supplies were supposed to be done in one year. There was no forex in the country and we couldn’t get raw materials to manufacture the drugs,” said Bisnowaty.
