The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Don’t you think it’s past time that the Bahamas National Drug Agency (BNDA) and the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) provide a meaningful response to the forensic audit results that were reported in the press late last year?

Don’t you think that the tax-paying public and users of the government health facilities deserve to find out if corruption has been taking place and, if so, what has been done to fix that? If certain persons were found guilty of offences, should they be still employed at the BNDA/PHA?

When one newspaper reported on the Bain Audit findings, the main response was from Dr Marvin Smith of the BNDA, threatening a lawsuit against the auditor and the PHA. Why have we not heard anything since?

Just to suggest that some persons might have been guilty of something illicit, shouldn’t it be investigated and if found to be true shouldn’t they be dealt with accordingly and shouldn’t we know? Without transparency, there can be no trust in any of our institutions!

To date, I have not seen or read anything suggesting any corrective action and it is certainly not fair to the ethical pharmaceutical suppliers and the country in general.

I do know that one supplier who was named in this newspaper report has subsequently been dropped by the BNDA, maybe because of media publicity.

It is understood that that supplier was selling medications to the BNDA without being properly licensed.

Who knows if the BNDA has since contracted other suppliers who may not be qualified to sell to the government; that is, not meeting the quality standard set by the BNDA itself?

I think this is a reasonable question since we are ignorant of corrective actions taken by the PHA.

In a few days, the BNDA may be releasing the awards for the pharmaceutical tender for government hospitals and clinics and my worry is if we will be seeing another period of waste and corruption.

It is not just the money that may be involved in any unscrupulous activity but something that has not been talked about; the health of the nation.

If there is unethical or fraudulent activity going on with BNDA purchases, one has to take into consideration the quality of medications bought by the BNDA under the guise that they are saving money.

If the medications are substandard due to the procurement process, then patients will likely suffer the consequences, sometimes even fatal.

We need transparency to feel safe and that our hard-earned money is not being wasted by the BNDA.

VERY CONCERNED CITIZEN

Nassau,

April 17, 2015.