- Audit report given to Parliament
A cost of approximately Rs. 280 million is estimated to have been incurred to import 10 non-essential medicines from a company based in India in 2022, despite warnings of a health crisis in the face of shortages of essential medicines.
An audit report released last week on the procurement of medicines in 2022 and 2023 reveals that although two medicine lists (vital and essential) for a total of 325 medicines where stocks were available for less than three months had been submitted to the Cabinet, 10 medicines imported from this Indian company during this emergency procurement period had not been included in the essential medicines list.
Auditor General W.P.C. Wickramaratne told The Sunday Morning that this report had also been forwarded to Parliament.
According to the audit report, Savorite Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has written to the Health Ministry in October 2022 proposing that the Government procure 38 medicines belonging to it. Following this, Cabinet approval had been sought to sign an agreement with Savorite and other selected suppliers and to make payments by utilising Indian credit line funds and other funds.
“After four days from the date of letter forwarded to the Minister of Health by the company [Savorite] on 21 October 2022, the Minister of Health had informed that the existing stocks in the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) were at risk level, stocks of 151 medicines were at zero level, the function of the surgeries would be totally inactivated during next three months, and that Savorite had agreed to provide the medical supplies to Sri Lanka,” states the report.
As such, a letter had been issued to award orders worth a total of $ 4,490,377.5 (for 38 medicines) by the former Health Ministry Secretary to Savorite.
“It was observed that 10 medicines out of 38 ordered from this company were the medicines which had not been included in the essential medicines list and an expected amount to be incurred for that was approximately Rs. 280 million,” said the report.
The report further observes that the letter had been sent to Savorite by the then Health Ministry Secretary prior to obtaining the approval of the Health Sector Emergency Procurement Committee.
Quoting information from the Treasury Department, the report further states that emergency purchases during 2022 and 2023 had been mainly done using funds from the Indian credit line, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, and donations from China.
Director General of Health Services (DDHS) Dr. Asela Gunawardena told The Sunday Morning that the audit report would be received by the Health Ministry Secretary and the ministry would accordingly respond to the audit query.
“We have to discuss with stakeholders, including the MSD, about the investigation and revelations. In the meantime, in response to issues that occurred in 2022 and 2023, we are trying to get the system in order. It is taking some time, but we have stopped all emergency purchases and have a proper priority list of medicines now,” he said.
Sri Lanka resorted to emergency medical purchases in 2022 with the onset of the economic crisis as hospitals ran out of medicines and essential surgeries came to a halt. However, since then, many reports have surfaced of corruption that occurred through these emergency purchases, with the most prominent one revealing a consignment of fake immunoglobulin that the Health Ministry had cleared for use last year, which when injected, had caused patients to react adversely.
Former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, along with seven other suspects including former Health Ministry Secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha, have been accused of being involved in the scam and remain in Police custody.