Below is a statement from NEW GPC Inc in response to a misleading article that was published in today’s Kaieteur News:
The NEW GPC Inc categorically rejects the totally erroneous and fake news item published in today’s edition of Kaieteur News under the headline “$1B drug contract awarded 3 days before 2015 elections…New GPC fails to deliver – Ministry of Public Health”.
The fictional story is a word for word reprint of the identical story carried by the newspaper on May 12th 2015 under the headline, “US$12.8M drug contract to NEW GPC”. The only addition is to claim NEW GPC did not deliver any of the pharmaceuticals for which it won the bids to supply.
NEW GPC would like to make it pellucid that IT HAS SUPPLIED ALL DRUGS FOR ALL ITS CONTRACTS WITH THE GOVERNMENT for 2015, including all rollover contracts. The delivery notes and other necessary documents are available as proof of this statement and available for inspection. The Auditor General Office, which would have conducted their audit during 2016 can attest to the veracity of this statement.
In another section of the media, the $400 million contract reported by Stabroek News for drugs to Georgetown Hospital that was supposed to have been awarded to NEW GPC for emergency supplies for 2017, is also not true. The NEW GPC obtained an order for $20 million of medical supplies in 2017 which were already delivered. We do not know if this was an ‘emergency’.
We note also the billions of dollars in sole-sourced contracts to other pharma suppliers, including Ansa McAL in 2015, 2016 and 2017. We expect the authorities would have better explanations for the contracts that were all sole-sourced, other than for “emergencies”, which was also the explanation for the Albuoystown “warehouse” lease.
The NEW GPC is concerned about the apparent compulsion by public officials to use the Kaieteur News to smear the reputation it has laboriously rebuilt over the last two decades. NEW GPC calls upon the politicians to desist from using these types of fake news as diversionary tactics from very real problems the health sector is facing. It is our fiduciary duty to the shareholders of NEW GPC, which includes the government, to leave no stone unturned to defend their interests.
The NEW GPC prides itself on its professional approach, as the leading Caribbean manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, to maintain the supply chain in an area of national life where it is literally a matter of life and death for our citizens.
