The National Audit Office (NAO) report (on the country’s Covid-19 Response) has revealed that procurement of medical items amounting to D123,232,642.00 were made without any needs assessment, by the Ministry of Health.
This, audit office intimated, has violated section 36 of the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) Act, which dictates that a procurement organization shall, as part of procurement planning strategies, conduct identification and assessment of the need for the procurement.
“We have noted that procurement of medical items amounting to D123, 232,642.00 were made in response to COVID-19 without any needs assessment.
“As a result, the Ministry (Health) could not be sure of the usefulness of medical items and fuel procured in response against COVID-19 activities” the NAO finds, as it further noted that the medical items were not identified and specified by the multi-stakeholders on the procurement and finance committee.
In such a scenario, the auditors observed, there is risk that the Ministry of Health has procured items that are not useful in response against COVID-19, and it could result in waste of government resources and reduce the effectiveness of the overall COVID-19 response.
Describing this as a high priority, the audit body recommended that the management (of Health ministry) should ensure that plausible explanations, substantiated with evidence for the non-performance of needs assessment, are provided, immediately.
“We recommend that a needs assessment is done and documented for the procurement of medical items. All future procurements should be based on detailed specifications”, the NAO charged in its report.
Management in its response (as indicated in the audited report), stated that predicting the course of a pandemic is one of the biggest challenges in epidemiology, especially a pandemic caused by a previously unknown microorganism.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is of such nature. However, based on what was seen as the pattern of the disease in the countries affected earlier on, various thematic areas in the COVID-19, a response came up with lists of items that would potentially be used in the response. New treatment centers are needed to be established and another is to be restructured”, according to management. It averred also that equipment and supplies challenge in health facilities need to be addressed as COVID-19 patients could be present at any facility in the country and they need to be taken care of.
The Director of Health Services, the chief technical officer of the Ministry in clinical care, with his team, knows the needs in the health facilities, they argued.
“These needs were put together in the list of items procured. The items procured are in line with what is needed in those facilities for the potential projections in managing the pandemic. Specifications were provided by the team and the World Bank Task team leader”, the management submitted.
