According to Juan José Sánchez, director of supply logistics for the pension, the supplies are already in the process of being purchased, but he did not want to specify when they would be available in pharmacies.
IPS
Pedro Halley, former manager of economic benefits of the IPS, affirmed that it is true that the pension suffers from bureaucratic bidding. This, because the entity is the largest buyer of drug manufacturers and importers. Therefore, there is a very large bid to obtain the contracts.
“When these tenders are thrown out, the suppliers’ fight is bloody. When one is going to win, the other challenges him. When the challenge is resolved in six months, another arises. The one who loses is the insured”, he detailed.
He said that to solve the problem, the procurement law must be modified. In other words, the purchase of essential and vital medicines must be carried out through exceptional procedures. And challenges must be resolved in five days and not in six months.
“In the legislature, these types of regulations must be proposed. Shorter and faster procedures without compromising controls. We have to work on a new law for the purchase of medicines since it is not the same, the purchase of a medical supply than a car battery, “he said.
Regarding the planning, Halley mentioned that they are carried out well in advance, but before the launch of the tender and the publication of the Bidding Terms and Conditions, a request for clarification already arises. Then, when it is resolved, the challenges to the offers appear and it takes six months to resolve.
“Planning is an administrative issue, the problem is the law where delays are allowed,” he said.
SEITZ
Pablo Seitz, head of the National Directorate of Public Procurement (DNCP), stated that he does not consider that the law has any problem. In addition, he warned that if the pension initiates a purchase process with medicines already lacking, that is another matter.
“If it is about emergency medications, it could have already been planned. For example, for the purchase of cancer drugs there is the exception route. If they are medicines that must go to the pharmacy, the IPS can already start the process sufficiently in advance to meet all the deadlines,” he stated.
He said that controls, transparency and free competition cannot be abandoned even though they are essential medicines.
“If the problem is the objection of the contestants, our system does not force the process to stop at each objection. The IPS also goes through bureaucratic processes because it has a board of directors and not a sole proprietor,” he explained.
