The purchasing and contracting committee of the Ministry of Public Health defended the tender process for the purchase of syringes, which was subsequently suspended, claiming that it is transparent and that it complies with the regulations established by law.
As for the price of 25 pesos, they indicated that it is an estimate of the cost involved in bringing those covid-19 syringes from the United States, which, due to their characteristics, are not supplied on the local market.
The committee gave a press conference, where the financial director of the Ministry of Public Health, Eduardo Inoa, said that the minister Plutarco Arias does not intervene in the technical issues of the committee and that they are responsible for the process that was urgent.
The Ministry of Health announced the suspension of the tender process, because the country will already receive the syringes as a donation.
While the director of procurement and contracts within the ministry, Marlene Fernández, He said that as far as the technical part is concerned, the department operates on the basis of its law, contracts and implementing regulations and that they are based on price estimation guidelines.
He said that no purchase of this type of syringe for Covid-19 vaccines had been made in the country and that they were specifically designed for this type of vaccination, so since there is no history of purchase, the next step is to was the country price estimate.
In this regard, he said that they appealed to international distributors with two options, the United States and China, but that the latter, although cheaper, would take longer, because it is the celebration of the Chinese New Year and that it was a urgent process.
“Bringing it from the United States doubles or triples the cost and everything has to be added to the basic cost of the syringes, in addition to the global shortage, because they focused on vaccines and not syringes,” said the official, who added that Add shipping , the customs cost and therefore the estimate was made
Since yesterday, on social networks, various people have denounced this tender process for the purchase of 25 million syringes for vaccines against Covid 19, whose market cost will be two pesos. The ministry then issued a statement saying it had canceled the trial because the syringes would be donated to the country.