Monday November 11, 2013
Kaieteur News
Cocaine in sweets…
CMO expresses concern about children exposed to narcotics Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud has expressed concern about the recent findings of cocaine laced sweets which were accessed by small children in the Mabaruma, NWD, on Wednesday. Persaud told Kaieteur News on Thursday that the Ministry of Health’s Food and Drugs Department has already been informed about the situation and will be on the alert for any similar cases that may arise as a result of Wednesday’s mishap. “I am very concerned that a substance like this is available and easily accessible by children in our country…” Persaud said. He added that the response to these events are critical because when persons fall sick, there is a need to identify what they were exposed to, so as to provide adequate care and treatment. “As far as we understand the packages were appropriately labeled, packaged and displayed for sale, so we need to investigate and I so hope by now that they have already issued an order to restrict the further sale of that batch of
Dr. Shamdeo Persaud contaminated sweets,” the CMO said. The CMO also said that with the involvement of the police there should be a quick response to have the batch of contaminated candy recalled. Dr. Persaud added that there is still need for more stringent sampling and testing of foods. “I don’t know how you can track those batches of sweets. Maybe if they were on the larger packs they might have been a batch number but I will have to find out that,” the CMO said. He added that last week, the Ministry of Health, in
collaboration with the Caribbean Public Health Agency, conducted a training exercise for food inspectors to improve food sampling. “We have found that in this area they are very weak so occasionally the ministry will actually provide funding for our inspectors to buy different forms of foods so they can sample and test and that is the biggest action we can take,” Dr. Persaud noted. Police in a press statement on Wednesday said that a number of the sweets that were seized by the police from a vendor and children at White Water, North West District two Sundays ago, following reports that three children who had eaten the sweets had shown unusual reactions, have tested positive for the presence of cocaine. According to a police source, 88 of the sweets tested positive for the addictive substance. The sweets were wrapped in paper that bore the brand of a popular local sweet manufacturer. Police had already taken a statement from the shopkeeper who claimed that he had purchased the sweets in a sealed packet from another distributor.
Deadly Canje River dispute…
Survivor remains hospitalised as cops hunt for killer Police were yesterday still hunting for a farm employee who shot 53-year-old Titus Sutton dead and wounded his colleague on Friday at Barakara, some 60 miles up the Canje River. It is understood that the fugitive is well known to the authorities. Titus Sutton, called “Franky,” or “Preso”, of Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara was shot dead and a colleague, Sherwin Mc Almont, 34, called ‘Shut’, also of Melanie Damishana, was shot in the leg at the home of the man with whom they had a dispute. According to information, Sutton, who had lived overseas for a number of years, returned home a few years ago and decided to go into cash crop farming, choosing the Canje River for this purpose. It is understood that the shooter and the victims were acquaintances and the suspect would frequent the Melanie Damishana area. He reportedly worked for Sutton at his farm and was entrusted with running the business whenever Sutton and his
colleague were not around. He was provided with a boat and engine, foodstuff and finance. However, Sutton was reportedly dissatisfied with the farm hand’s performance and a dispute broke out between the men. They reportedly demanded that the employee return their engine and leave the farm. However the dispute heightened over payment and monies owed. It is also understood that the employee went to the farm and destroyed some of the crops before leaving. The men, upon their return to the Canje River area, went to the worker’s home at Barakara. An argument ensued and Sutton was shot in the face at close range, reportedly with an improvised shotgun. He collapsed on the steps of the small house where his body remained until Saturday, when it was removed by police and relatives who had journeyed all the way up the Canje River. The body was brought out of the river and taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital
Mortuary where it is awaiting a post mortem examination. Mc Almont, 34, was shot in the leg as he tried to escape with the others. He was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was admitted and spent Friday night, before being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. Titus Sutton was the brother of the late popular Melanie Damishana resident, Mark Sutton, who collapsed a few years ago while playing football on the community’s playfield. Only a few months ago he lost his sister, Shelly, who collapsed suddenly at her home in Melanie.
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Ramroop admits to having items recorded as already delivered to GPHC Bharrat Jagdeo’s best friend Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’Ramroop, who owns New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (GPC), has lashed out at the Auditor General of Guyana over the discrepancies raised in his 2012 reports. Ramroop yesterday accused the Audit Office of “sloppy fieldwork by junior officials in the Office of the Auditor General.” But the Auditor General found among other things that there were several million dollars worth of drugs still to be supplied by Ramroop. These drugs were part of the more than US$15M worth of drug contracts Ramroop received from the Ministry of Health and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Ramroop admitted this and called on the Ministry of Health and GPHC, “to remove its goods from the corporation warehouses as soon as possible.” In seeking to explain the non supply of the drugs, Ramroop has also conceded that the New GPC is still currently storing a very large volume of items for the Ministry and GPHC which New GPC recorded as delivered. Ramroop said that Contracts, particularly the larger orders, sometimes overlap from a consumption point of view into the following financial year. Hence, it is not unusual that some items are not collected by the Ministry at the end of the fiscal year. However, it is unusual that these items would be recorded by New GPC as delivered. He said that national budgets are approved some time between March and July and hence the quantities being ordered sometimes cater for this overlap. But for more than a decade the budget has been presented in February. Ramroop said that the Ministry receives goods based on their own predetermined consumption pattern and that means deliveries are staggered throughout the year. Ramroop also claims that
Auditor General Deodat Sharma
Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop
contracts are signed at different times during the year, and so for those signed in the later months, deliveries are actually intended to roll over into the following year. On the matter of bank guarantees raised by the Auditor General, Ramroop claims that they are not meant to be valid for the original sum throughout the life of the contract. “As deliveries are made, the risk is obviously decreasing and hence a bank guarantee can be, and is, often renewed for a lesser amount.” In attempting to discredit the Auditor General, Ramroop said that the report appears to have been compiled on the basis of simplistic interactions with junior and non-technical personnel within the Ministry and GPHC administrations and does not take full cognisance of the nature of the supply chain process for pharmaceuticals and related products and the environment in which we operate. Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, made the report public this past week and it has revealed
that Ramroop’s New GPC received in excess of $3B to supply drugs to the Ministry of Health and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Another $1B was spread across more than a dozen local and international companies. Ramroop received the largest chunk of the drugs purchased by Government last year and according to the Auditor General, this was done based on the fact that he was pre-qualified since 2010. This means that in 2010, Ramroop’s New GPC would have been selected to supply drugs to Government without having to go to public tender until that prequalification status expires. Between the Ministry of Health and GPHC, the government spent just over $4B in drug purchases last year.