HEALTH minister Bernard Haufiku yesterday said he is against using middlemen in health tenders because of concerns that they inflate prices.
Haufiku made these comments to The Namibian when asked about the latest N$1 billion medicine tender that has attracted 22 companies.
International companies are among the 22 firms which are scrambling for tenders to supply medicine to the government in a deal that fetched quotations of more than N$1,1 billion.
However, Haufiku told The Namibian yesterday that he has not yet been briefed on the pharmaceutical tendering process.
“But our principle of minimising or cutting out middle persons remains,” the minister stated.
Haufiku had spoken out against briefcase companies which inflate prices on medical contracts in the past.
“It is due to ‘tenderpreneurs’ who want to drive Range Rovers and live large by putting huge mark-ups on the products,” he said three years ago.
A middleman is normally a person or company that connects buyers with sellers for a fee.
Sources at the Central Procurement Board (CPB) said the board is currently evaluating these tenders.
Haufiku’s latest comments come after the weekly Tender Bulletin newsletter reported about the contract which attracted controversy in the past.
The Tender Bulletin said the previous tender (2015 to 2017) for supplying pharmaceuticals to the government requested 622 medicines, including items such as liquids (135), tablets (163 items), injectable medicine (203), TB medicines (17) and seven anti-malaria items.
According to the newsletter, United States-based Adesso Healthcare Suppliers was one of the companies which bid for the latest tender for N$1,1 billion, while Namibian-owned Erongo Agencies placed a N$957 million bid for the same consignment.
Another Namibian firm, Doré Pharmaceuticals, submitted a N$826 million bid, followed by Nampharm with their N$765 million bid.
Gheka Pharma and Cospharm Investments asked for N$478 million and N$423 million, respectively.
Other notable bids include a N$178 million quotation from Shipanga Medical Supplies, which is owned by businessman Martin Shipanga.
Econo Investment, which is owned by lawyer-turned-businessman Rodgers Kauta, submitted a N$142 million bid.
Another notable name is Pfizer Inc, an American pharmaceutical corporation based in New York City, which asked for N$33 million.
Some of the prices varied because some companies only submitted bids for the medicine they could supply.
International companies were in the past forced into joint ventures with local companies to get a better chance of scoring government contracts.
The Namibian understands that authorities in the finance ministry have been briefed about concerns that Namibians could miss out from these tenders.
The CPB has already put out three clarifications about this tender after the contract was advertised earlier this year.
The clarification, obtained on the CPB website, has two blocks – one with a question by a bidder, and an answer by the tender agency.
For instance, one bidder asked, “can a foreign manufacturer participate in this tender directly?” CPB responded with “yes, as the procurement method is open international bidding”.
The health ministry has been a hotbed for questionable tenders over the years, and medical store contracts could be another battleground.
Even minister Haufiku sounded the alarm when he realised that the government was being overcharged.
“The way we have been buying ARVs has been unbelievably inflated up to three times. Also, consumable supplies were also super-inflated, and these are things that have been happening at the head office. It is not in the periphery or regions, and that further reduced the actual budget that needs to permeate to the periphery to the ordinary Namibian citizen for medical services,” he told New Era last year.
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