Reconsider Rs 135 crore medicines contract to tainted vendors: BMC panel
MUMBAI, July 11, 2019: The standing committee on Wednesday objected to a decision of the BMC administration to award medicine supply contracts to nine tainted contractors. It returned the Rs135 crore proposal to the municipal administration for reconsideration.
The standing committee is a statutory body that clears financial proposals.
Recently, the BMC had conducted an inquiry against the nine contractors for delayed supply of medicines, which had caused massive shortages at municipal-run hospitals and hardship to poor patients.
The BMC had issued show-cause notices to these contractors while also blacklisting five.
The medicine suppliers' union had made counter allegations, saying they were being made scapegoats and the delay in placing orders was at the hospital end. It had even threatened to stop all medicine supply to BMC hospitals but withdrawn their protest after meeting municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi.
On Wednesday, corporators alleged the BMC was adopting a soft approach towards tainted contractors.
The All Food and Drug Licence Holders Foundation protested against the standing committee decision and said that the distributors had filled tenders eight to nine months ago, when they were not blacklisted or under the scanner. "How can they be stopped from supplying medicines now? Tenders were filled up when there were no charges against them," Abhay Pandey, national president of AFDLHF, said.
He said the current decision would not affect the supply of medicines to BMC hospitals. "Only 25% of BMC's overall drugs, including injectables, are procured through rate contract," he said.
He said the BMC must investigate why hospitals would wait till the last vial of drug was over to place an order. "There is a nexus, which the BMC needs to probe," he said.
Dr Ramesh Bharmal, dean of BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai Central, said hospitals would not face an immediate shortage of medicines. ET Health