Health Ministry Tackles IMANI Over Anti-Snake Serum Procurement

Following the concerns raised by IMANI Ghana regarding the procurement of Anti-Snake Serum by the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ministry has taken time to respond to all six questions asked by the Policy Think Tank.

The Health Minister, Hon. Kwaku Agyeman- Manu, who answered the questions on behalf of the Ministry, stated in an email to IMANI Ghana on February 12, 2019, that most of the concerns raised by the NGO were not really accurate.

In response to the first question raised by the NGO with regards to the Ministry’s “involvement in bid evaluation rigging and overly intrusive interventions in the tender processes of an International competitive tender for the supply of 50,000 units of anti-snake serum in August 2018”, Hon. Agyeman-Manu explained that there was no bid evaluation rigging as said by IMANI Ghana. He stated that a letter was only written to two of the tenderers to correct arithmetic errors which were detected during the evaluation process in accordance with the provisions of the Tender documents, clause30(1) and section 57 of the Public Procurement Act 663 as amended (Act 914).

According to the Minister, the tender has been cancelled pending investigations by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) into the allegations, and that all six firms who participated in the tender have been notified about this development.

Hon. Agyeman-Manu, however, confirmed that the Ministry has written to the PPA to seek for permission to import 20,000 units of serum on an emergency basis due to the shortage of the serum in the country. He further noted that the annual requirement of the MOH for snake serum is 50,000 vials and not 20,000 as said by IMANI Ghana.

The Minister, in addressing the concerns about the MOH’s disregard for the outcome of the PPA’s enquiry and going ahead to seek for permission from the PPA to import from the same company that which was alleged to have skewed tender documents, answered that the MOH never intended to disregard the PPA’s enquiry and that is why they wrote for approval to import from the same company. The PPA has however advised the ministry to hold on till investigations are completed.

Meanwhile, the MOH has agreed with the PPA, in principle, to seek help from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to procure the serum from any approved source available. He further stated that there is no documentary evidence to show that the WHO has questions about the effectiveness of the anti-snake serum from the company in question as was said by IMANI Ghana.

On the effectiveness of the anti-rabies drug which was supplied to the Ministry by the same company in question, it was revealed that it has since been locked up in the Ministry’s warehouse because the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has not approved it, the Minister said the only problem with the anti-rabies supplied by the company is the moisture content. And that may or may not affect the effectiveness of the drug.

The Ministry, however, asked the company to replace the entire quantity and they did. The new supply has been approved by the FDA without any issues.