00:00For eight years, illegal and unlawful requirements were allegedly imposed on pharmaceutical importers.
00:07That claim was made today by Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Jack Deo Singh,
00:12as the committee examined the state's acquisition and registration of pharmaceuticals.
00:17This rogue public servant who enacted an ultra-virus requirement for something as important as the importation of new drugs
00:33into Trinidad
00:34was allowed to continue unchecked and unabated for seven whole years, eight whole years,
00:45without anybody in the ministry realizing that these forms introduced requirements that had no basis in law.
00:54The director of the Food and Drugs Division, who assumed office in late 2025,
01:00told the committee complaints were raised upon his arrival.
01:03When I came into office, there were some complaints coming in that the application was a bit onerous.
01:09Some documents, persons, especially smaller importers, were saying that there were some documents
01:15that they could not have gotten for the registration of drugs.
01:18I started looking at the requirements for registration against the legislation,
01:23and I realized that there were documents that were being asked for
01:26that were not listed within the example that was given in the legislation.
01:34At one point, the meeting grew heated with the chairman pressing officials on where the directive originated.
01:41Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out that answer,
01:44as a result of which, in September, I would have asked for the form to be reverted to the form
01:51prior to 2017.
01:53But Singh challenged whether the changes effectively locked smaller companies out of the market,
01:58creating what he described as a manufactured monopoly.
02:02So, while that company, that one single company, has been allowed to register almost 90% of the registered pharmaceuticals,
02:16the small importers have found it impossible to do so
02:21because of the plainly illegal and unlawful requirements introduced by a rogue public servant.
02:32Evidence presented to the committee suggested that screening outcomes under one officer
02:38showed significantly higher approval rates for certain large importers compared to others.
02:44Have you seen a report prepared in which screening applications performed by Mr. Imtiaz Ali
02:58resulted in a 97.8 acceptance rate for Massey, GSK, Aventa, and Bryden,
03:10compared to a 66.9% acceptance rate for other companies?
03:17The committee said the marketplace was purposefully constricted to suit one company.
03:22The one company that this benefited the most is Aventa, isn't it true?
03:27Smith-Robertson morphed into Aventa.
03:31They've had most of the registrations here.
03:33Not most of. Mr. Ali, listen, I want to be very respectful to you, right?
03:39Thank you, sir.
03:54The committee also raised concerns about enforcement actions during Operation Windsor,
04:01noting that some major pharmacy chains were reportedly not targeted during raids for illegal drugs.
04:09How many Super Farm Outlets were raided?
04:12Chair, at the point in time, zero.
04:16Zero.
04:18How many Massey pharmacies were raided?
04:22Chair, at the point in time, it was zero.
04:26Where were the concentration of pharmacies which were raided?
04:32I know the answer, Mrs. Sibu.
04:35I'm asking you a question to which I know the answer.
04:39They're all in South Trinidad.
04:42Most of them were in rural Trinidad and Tobago.
04:45Meanwhile, NIPDEC's general manager was questioned about delayed payments to smaller pharmacies supplying drugs under the CDAP program.
04:53So, Chairman, there was a meeting that was held with NIPDEC and the Ministry of Health team from 2023 to
05:01a period early in 2025 that, in terms of the various allocations of payments, were dictated by the ministry.
05:09Who from the Ministry of Health was there?
05:13Representative NIPDEC and executive team of the Ministry of Health.
05:17Who from the Ministry of Health was the minister there?
05:20Yes.
05:21The Public Accounts Committee says it intends to invite the named public servants, as well as the former minister, to
05:28appear and provide further evidence.
05:31I'm Rishi Tawari Rupnaraim, TV6 News.
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