Hansard - Parliament

46
2012.05.08
Mr. President, do you hear those words? Now he is saying that at the
moment no facilities exist for the storing of bulk in the various RHAs. So
when one buys in bulk, where would they store it? That is my question. So
we still have to develop storage facilities even if it is for one, because he is
telling us—I did not know that—that none now exists, and he is making the
point that no fees are paid to anyone, and I jumped when I heard that,
because as it now stands, Nipdec and C40 purchases pharmaceuticals in bulk
and distributes to the RHAs, and he is now saying, this amendment would
cause one RHA to buy in bulk for the remainder of them and no fees would
be payable to anyone.
So I gather that what the Minister was telling us there is that they want
to phase out Nipdec. Nipdec is earning a procurement fee—moneys for
procuring for them—and I gather that they are now saying, “Take the thing
away from Nipdec; you do it yourself so you would not have to pay any
fees.” A lot of people may have missed that, but I did not and I suspect that
at the heart of this is to get Nipdec out of the equation, and possibly
because—now I am not casting aspersions on the Minister. He is, as far as I
am aware, a very noble gentleman. He has little political footworks and, you
know, he could play his political games, but, basically, at heart, he is a good
man for whom I have a modicum of respect and so on—more than a
modicum.
But at the heart of this, I suspect he is taking advice from persons in
the RHAs. In fact, in his presentation he went on to say that the RHAs are
the ones who called for this. But who or what are the RHAs? The RHAs
are now managed by friends and lackeys of the Government who have been
put on these boards to manage these organizations, including the EFCL and