One year ago - on January 21, 2021, the Taiwanese government donated 15,000 COVID-19 Antigen rapid tests - valued at $300,000 Belize dollars - to the Ministry of Health.
But, for almost a year, all those boxes of "Fora" brand tests sat idle, locked up in storage at the Ministry of Health - while - we are reliably informed - the Ministry used the urgent procurement process to keep buying tests from preferred suppliers.
"Urgent procurement" is a preferred acquisition process in the PUDP system because then the Ministry doesn't have to go to the open tender bidding process - and, like we said, preferred suppliers can be chosen.
This morning on Sunup - Jules Vasquez challenged the Ministry to show that these tests weren't just locked up in storage. And, to their credit, they did. The new CEO Julio Sabido instructed his information officer to send us these documents showing that the tests had, in fact, been circulated. That's good to know, but when we looked at the date, we saw that happened just earlier this month - meaning that indeed, the tests had sat in storage for a year - while the open market purchasing continued.
Our sources tell us that another urgent procurement request for more tests is now before the Contractor General.
