A LARGE number of medicines provided by public health care have been acquired via suspect methods, and some may even be unsuitable or even hazardous to people’s health, the EDEK party charged yesterday.
At a news conference, EDEK deputy Marinos Sizopoulos presented the findings of an inquiry carried out by the party, citing names, dates and figures for medicines purchased by the government through “summary procedures”.
EDEK said it had “good cause” to suspect gross embezzlement and/or waste of government funds — with taxpayers footing the bill— profiteering, breaches of transparency and possible endangerment of public health.
In many cases, deals were made with manufacturers directly, totally bypassing tenders processes normally required for government expenditure.
Breaches of normal procedure included: altering the terms and conditions of offers so as to apparently serve specific companies; purchasing unnecessary amounts of medicines; buying medicines at higher prices while lower bids were available; cancelling procurements from one company and then buying the medicines from another; and “watering down” the specification requirements of some medicines.
Moreover, Sizopoulos claimed he had evidence that three particular manufacturers (which he did not name) benefited the most from these irregularities in procurement methods. In 2004 these three manufacturers closed deals with the government worth a total of £1.3 million; according to Sizopoulos, the bulk of this amount (around £780,000) was secured through summary procedures.
Meanwhile expenditures on medicines over the past few years were grossly disproportionate to demand, even accounting for the rise in the number of people eligible for free health care (including Turkish Cypriots), the ageing population, as well as price increases for certain medicines.
To back up his charges, Sizopoulos cited a string of examples of medicines that were procured under anomalous circumstances. For instance, a deal was reached directly with the manufacturers for Aquathenol (a moisturising cream used to treat sun burns); however, the manufacturers ended up supplying Novaquasol, which although a similar medicine has a different chemical synthesis and possibly different medicinal properties.
Sizopoulos went on to claim that he personally discovered Novaquasol was not available at state hospitals, having been “secretly recalled” by authorities last week.
Another drug, Trisequens (oestrogen treatment for symptoms of menopause), was bought at £2.95 or £3.90, even though the previous market price quoted was £1.97.
In other case anabolic steroids were sent along with other medicines as part of relief aid to developing countries.
But the more serious indictment was that the health services’ employee who compiled a report on procurement procedures was transferred to another department immediately upon completion of the report.
The socialist party called on the Accountant-general to submit to Parliament the report on medicine procurements by the public sector, but also suggested that law enforcement should look into the matter.
EDEK’s accusations come in the wake of fears of medicine shortages after the government’s recent decision to slash prices on a range of drugs.
