Angel Valdes | June 7, 2023
In a letter sent to the director of the Social Security Fund, Enrique Lau, the Association of Representatives and Distributors of Pharmaceutical Products (AREDIS) asked the health entity to pay the debt that amounts to more than 48 million dollars corresponding to purchases of 2022 and 2023.
Unfortunately, since you issued an order prohibiting officials from meeting with suppliers, we find it necessary to address you directly.
It turns out that the institution has a very high delinquency in its accounts payable to the companies associated with AREDIS that represent international manufacturers as medicine suppliers to the CSS.
In summary, we can confirm that the accounts submitted on time awaiting payment for deliveries in 2022 exceed 8 million and the accounts payable generated by deliveries in 2023 exceed 40 million.
It should be noted that most of these 2023 deliveries were not covered by budget items and, therefore, as it is necessary to obtain an addendum that makes the budget official for these purchases, they have not been officially received by the respective executing units.
In other words, the suppliers have not yet been able to present their accounts for collection because they have not received the respective receipt reports (delivery receipts), which will extend those payments for several more months.
In total, the unpaid deliveries so far exceed $48 million, but it is obvious that if this continues until the expiration of the tender (LPU-1-2022) that generated those orders, that total will be much higher.
The seriousness of the situation is of such magnitude, Dr. Lau, that should generate the following question: in the face of this lack of payments, will the suppliers be able to continue their deliveries?
Although we have no doubt that you know these details very well, we would like to remind you that, concerned about the health of the thousands of policyholders who hope to be able to receive their treatments without interruptions, the manufacturers’ representatives have proceeded to make the corresponding deliveries on time, despite that most of these orders did not have their respective budget items, which is creating an unsustainable situation for these companies.
