Malpractice in tender process to procure cancer drugs

Colombo (News 1st): MP Dayasiri Jayasekera today (July 12) speaking in Parliament alleged serious malpractice were committed in the tender process to procure cancer treatment drugs for Sri Lanka. He went on to note if one makes the calculations the approximate loss to the state in this process is around Rs 100 million. The MP went on to note the National Procurement Commission established by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution had informed the Health Secretary to make the purchases as per the stipulated guidelines set-out by the NPC. The MP alleged such a process was not followed and questioned the Health Minister on what remedial measures would be adopted to prevent this from taking place any further. Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne in response said the certain pharmaceutical company ranting about this issue met him sometime back as well and he defended his decision for going for the lowest bid.