Bidder funds MoH trip
7 August, 2009 - A Kolkata-based medical
equipment supplier, Vikas medical devices, organised two ‘all round
paid’ trips to China and Germany for officials of the health ministry,
including tender committee members, Kuensel has found.
The trip, observers, including officials of the anti corruption commission, say, contravenes the standard bidding do*****ent (SBD), which says that bidders having a conflict of interest shall be disqualified. The manual says that if there is any form of subsidy enjoyed by either party, it will be a conflict of interest, which in this case is the paid for double trips.
Vikas medical devices is one of many companies participating in an ongoing Nu 80m medical equipment and Nu 110m medical drugs tender of the health ministry. These trips are also the first ever privately sponsored trips approved by the human resource committee, Kuensel found.
“If this is true, it’s a very serious case of conflict of interest, where a company bidding for a tender is also sponsoring you,” said an ACC official.
The most recent trip was to Germany for 10 days from July 10 to 20 to see medical equipment being offered by Vikas medical devices. The medical equipment tender was announced in early April with submission received by May 22. The results are expected to be announced within next week.
Those in the Germany trip include the chief procurement officer, Nawang Dorjee of drugs, vaccines and equipment division (DVED), former DVED head and current deputy secretary, Nado Dukpa, both involved in the tendering process and three heads of department, Dr Tashi Tenzin for surgery, Dr Tsewang for orthopaedics and Dr Samdrup for dental, were involved in giving technical feedback to tenders relevant to their fields.
A senior health official told Kuensel that relevant people, like the bio-medical engineer, whose job is the most critical in quality checking and repairing equipment, were excluded from the trip, while people from administration and finance took his place.
The director general of the department of medical services, Dr Dorji Wangchuk, denying any conflict of interest, said, “The trips were approved by the ministry, since our people must know what type of equipment they are buying and whether they adhere to ‘good manufacturing practices’ or GMP.”
Nawang Dorjee said, “We’d proposed a Nu 1m budget to go outside and see equipment, but it wasn’t possible, so this private trip, arranged by Vikas, was approved.” He added that, though they requested they be allowed to see other companies in Germany, Vikas said that there was time and resource only to see his main supplier in Germany and another neighbouring company.
On the 10-day tour, only two days were spent in Tutlinger, Germany, to see the equipment, while the rest involved night halts and stopovers at Kolkata, Amsterdam and Bangkok. Officials said that there was no direct flight to Germany.
Similarly, the trip to China, was also sponsored by Vikas medical devices from April 26-30 this year.
Sources said that Vikas is one of the biggest medical suppliers to Bhutan, consistently winning tenders worth millions for the past six years, including the Nu 180m tender to supply medical equipment to the new JDWRNH hospital in Thimphu and the Mongar regional referral hospital.
