The Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) stated that with the near halt of emergency purchases, corruption and irregularities in pharmaceutical drug procurement have substantially declined. However, they emphasised that to completely eradicate these issues, the entire process of medicine procurement and distribution must be fully digitised.
In recent years, several incidents of large-scale corruption and irregularities have occurred in drug procurement, especially during emergency purchases made in the context of the economic crisis.
When contacted by The Daily Morning, GMOA Spokesperson Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe said that there were various issues pertaining to the procurement of pharmaceutical drugs when emergency purchases were being made. "We had a lot of issues with purchasing drugs under emergency purchasing. When procurement is done under emergency purchasing, there is no price control, and can be favoured to certain companies, and there are quality related issues. However, emergency purchases have almost completely stopped by now. It is a positive situation." He further said that pharmaceutical drugs have been purchased under normal procedures since the beginning of this year (2024), and added that there are therefore less chances of various irregularities and corruption in normal procedures. "We can't say that there are no acts of corruption and irregularities at all, but, there are very less chances of them as normal purchases are made through registered suppliers. A permanent solution to this issue can only be found if everything related to the purchase and distribution of drugs is fully digitised."
Attempts to contact the Health Minister, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana to query as to whether there are any ongoing attempts to digitise the drug purchasing and distribution-related process proved futile.
A total of 12 suspects including former Health Minister and incumbent Government Parliamentarian Keheliya Rambukwella and former Health Ministry Secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha were recently arrested and subsequently placed in remand custody in connection with the controversial human intravenous immunoglobulin vials deal. Of them, 11 suspects including Rambukwella and Chandraguptha have been granted bail by the relevant court as of now.