Killer drug scams mired in half-hearted probes
Amidst the emergence of more new evidence regarding Sri Lanka’s worst-ever medical scam—which led to the distribution of counterfeit, untested, unregulated medication to government hospitals—pressing questions remain about how every official guideline introduced to minimise, if not eliminate, this type of dangerous, barefaced fraud was allowed to be flouted.
There are at least two known concerns here. One is that decisions were made at the highest levels of the Health Ministry in 2022 to buy medication, including non-essential ones, from handpicked companies at prices far above market rates. The instruction was to procure these stocks from the favoured suppliers regardless of pending orders that were soon to be delivered. There is clear documentary evidence of medicines bought at the height of a dire economic crisis at inflated prices.
The second is that decisions were also made at the highest levels— and approved by the Cabinet based on memoranda submitted by the then Health Minister—to set aside established procurement and regulatory guidelines for the purchase of medication on grounds of “urgency”. It was not conveyed that at least part of the problem was a deliberately fabricated “urgent situation,” which allowed this pretext to be used for corruption procurement. It cannot be ruled out that supplies were deficient. But there were reasons other than a dollar crisis—including glaring mismanagement—for these deficiencies. The shortage was, at least in part, perpetuated for the sake of making a fast buck from unchecked medical procurements.
Every gatekeeping mechanism failed or was flouted. The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Board handed over its authority to one politically appointed man to do as he pleased with waivers of registration. The then Health Minister got Cabinet clearance for procurements to be done through the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division, which is not a purchasing arm. An emergency procurement process introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic was allowed to be continued.
Neighbouring India was dragged into this elaborate deception. The Cabinet was told that medical purchases had to be expedited as the Indian Credit Line (ICL), under which there was an allocation for health supplies, was about to expire. Cabinet merely rubber-stamped emergency procurements. Rarely do Cabinet Ministers question their colleagues; it is a 'you scratch my back; I will scratch yours' policy in there. But even while these various porous Cabinet memoranda were being submitted, plans were being devised by a small group in the Health Ministry and the NMRA to give out dud tenders for dud medication. Not all of the tenders—the vast majority of which were single-source unsolicited proposals—were paid for by the Indian Credit Line, despite the paperwork saying the opposite.
The only reason the human immunoglobulin scam came to light was that patients who received the counterfeit injection showed adverse reactions. When this was reported, officials panicked.
Several arrests have been made, but the key players have gone unpunished and have received fresh appointments under which they hold significant authority, including over procurements. There is no excuse for the unconscionable abuse of public trust—and of the institutions and positions that they held in the public trust—that occurred under their watch. There is no rule in any book that allows a blind eye to be turned to what happened.
Sugar scams, garlic scams, fertiliser scams, etc., etc., this country has them all. How can a medicinal drug scam of this proportion, largely affecting the health of the poorer citizens, also go the way of the others, into the limbo of half-hearted criminal investigations?