In the coming weeks, the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) is expected to zero in on all aspects of sole sourcing which occurred between the previous regime and New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC), which is owned by Dr. Ranjisingh ‘Bobby’ Ramroop. He is said to be the best friend of former President and now Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo.SARU’s Head, Dr. Clive Thomas emphasized that he is interested in examining all aspects of possible corruption involving the state’s assets in any sector. It is upon that premise that Dr. Thomas said his office will “Zero in on the sole sourcing of drug contracts” under the previous regime as he believes it involves “Some of the most disturbing cases of misappropriation of the state’s finances.”The Economist said, “Sole sourcing has the potential for corruption to take place and I am of the firm belief that this type of procurement was highly abused by the former administration. But at the same time I want to make it clear that I am not saying that all sole sourcing is unlawful. Once used in the correct circumstance where there is an emergency and it can be proven that only one particular company can provide what is needed, then of course, one can be allowed to proceed.”Dr. Thomas said that in the case of NEW GPC, “There was no need to have this company be given the lion’s share of the drug contracts because it was not a case where it was supplying drugs that no one else could have provided for us. There was no emergency to justify using this one company alone in many instances and so the PPP simply helped this one man to build an empire in the Health Sector.”The SARU head said that Guyana, in the process, lost billions of dollars in sole sourcing drug contracts as opposed to allowing other qualified bidders to “Get a fair shot and more importantly,cheap nfl jerseys outlet, allowing the country to get more competitive price through tendering.”He reminded that the Auditor General,NFL Jerseys Cheap, Deodat Sharma also conducted a special report on sole sourcing. Dr. Thomas said that even though his office has not seen the document, he is eager to see its findings which he would also use as a guide or a supplement for his own groundwork.Opposition Leader, Bharrat JagdeoNEW GPC owner, Dr. Ranjisingh ‘Bobby’ RamroopSARU Head, Dr. Clive ThomasDr. Thomas continued, “I also want to emphasize the point that there was significant loss of state capital under sole sourcing and the estimate by the former Auditor General, Anand Goolsarran was over US$140M which was lost through the procurement process. So indeed this is something we are going to look into in-depth and have already started to some degree. We cannot allow certain injustices against this nation to just slip by us.”Chartered Accountant, Anand Goolsarran, contended in various instances that the weak systems of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) need to be addressed by the new administration once and for all as they are costing the country approximately $28B annually.Goolsarran said that it is critical for the Ministry of Finance to review the operations of NPTAB, given the fact that the agency has been cited by the Auditor General for numerous cases of financial discrepancies.He emphasized that about 70 percent of the national budget relates to public procurement.The former Auditor General then pointed to credible allegations of corrupt behaviour in public procurement. These included sole sourcing of drug contracts to Ramroop,Wholesale Jerseys Cheap, contract splitting,Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys, inflated engineer’s estimates, evaluation bias on behalf of favoured contractors, the use of inexperienced contractors, the absence of competitive bidding in some cases and overpayment to contractors.Goolsarran said that at least, some $28 billion or US$140M is lost annually by looking at those areas. His estimation was garnered from an overview of the Auditor General’s reports on the country’s accounts over the past few years.A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) have also spoken against the award of billion dollar drug contracts in favour of the New GPC owner, while bringing particular focus to the manner in which the previous administration changed the laws to ensure that Ramroop’s company would be used for the sole sourcing of drugs.When it served in the Opposition, the current administration had lashed out at the PPP/C for granting billions of dollars worth in contracts to NEW GPC during the lead up to the May 11 National and Regional Elections.On May 8, last, New GPC uplifted the entire billion-dollar cheque for a drug contract awarded to it by the PPP/C administration.That was the last working day before General and Regional elections. The