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City of Banjul
Monday, February 17, 2025
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Minister says GPPA rules, unreliable contractors responsible for inadequate supply of drugs

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By Tabora Bojang

Health Minister Dr Ahmadou Samateh has said GPPA procurement methods and unreliability of suppliers are the main issues affecting the adequate supply of drugs in the country’s health facilities.

According to Dr Samateh, 100 percent of drugs and medical consumables used in Gambian health facilities are imported. But he said many of the entities awarded government contracts to bring the medical items have not delivered to the letter.

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Samateh, himself a consultant surgeon, also criticised the GPPA procurement system as being “too long” and “time consuming” which he lamented impede the expeditious procurement of drugs.

“There are a lot of challenges in drug procurement. The back and forth, the timeliness of quantification, the preparation of bidding documents, the sending of bidding documents to GPPA to get approval and bringing it back, the contracts committee meetings, the advertisements, the valuation of the bidding documents, the selections processes, the contract signing, the release of funds from Ministry of Finance, all take a lot of time. Sometimes it takes six months before a contracting entity could be allowed to send the lists of drugs to the manufacturing companies overseas. This method is challenging. In an instance where procurement was to start in 2025 it would take towards the third quarter of the year before the items will arrive in The Gambia,” Minister Samateh queried to lawmakers Monday.

He added that the unreliability of suppliers who are mainly Gambians is a major problem for the ministry. “For the past few years, the biggest chunk of these contracts were awarded to Gambian suppliers. But unfortunately, they have not been delivering.”

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He alleged that some of the suppliers did not have capacity despite seeming to be fulfilling all the GPPA requirements. 

He said other suppliers will not only fail in supplying items on time but they will withdraw after winning bids. He added that in other cases, after winning contracts, suppliers will ask for modifications in the contract. “We realise that some of them even after winning contracts did not make any orders from the manufacturers overseas,” the Minister said.

“So, what really affects drug supply in this country is the procurement method and the unreliability of suppliers,” Dr Samateh added.

Minister Samateh said 45 containers of medical items arrived in the country by sea in 2024, about 40 percent of which was funded by the government and partners.  He said 121 consignments came through the airport and six truck loads of medication and other items came by land.

Current stock levels

He disclosed that currently up to 40 percent of the essential medicines are available in the country and are in stock.

“This is separate from the drugs that hospitals are able to buy on their own from their internally generated funds. So, in the hospitals, we expect more than 40 percent of essential drugs to be available. I can attest to that. I have been going round the hospitals and each time I enter hospital stores, I see drugs in all treatment categories: the hypertensive, the anti-hypertensive drugs, antibiotics, anti-diabetic drugs and so forth. So, for each category drugs are available.”

But he lamented that despite the health budget being increased by four folds, funds currently budgeted can cover only 30 percent of the national requirement for medicines.

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