The Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has been informed of fake documents regarding the importing of medicines under the emergency procurement system in 2022 and 2023.
National Medicine Regulatory Authority of Sri Lanka (NMRA) CEO Saveen Semage told the committee that several fake documents have been found due to the lack of registration of medicines.
Stating that 06 such fake documents were found last year alone, Saveen Semage said he had recorded statements regarding each of the documents with the Financial Crimes Investigation Division.
He revealed that, however, no investigations have been conducted yet into the incidents.
“We have documents with confessions from a woman accepting that fake documents had been made. However, a statement has not even been recorded from that woman yet,” he said.
Meanwhile, COPE member MP Asitha Niroshana Egoda Vithana also revealed that the highest number of waive-off registrations (WOR) for medicines had been obtained in 2022 and 2023.
He said 656 waive-off registrations (WOR) had been obtained in 2022 and 261 in 2023, adding that this proves that discrepancies have taken place during the emergency procurement of medicines during these periods.
Furthermore, Deputy Director General of the Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry, Dr. G. Wijesuriya said discussions are underway on allowing the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) to directly import essential medicines.
He pointed out that it was essential to take a policy decision in this regard as a solution to mitigate such discrepancies. (Newswire)