News

Government imported Rapid Antigen test kits on epidemiologists’ recommendation – State Minister

Published

3 years ago

2020/11/15

by Imesh Ranasinghe

The government chose to use an emergency tender process to import the Rapid Antigen test kits to Sri Lanka to cover the need of 1.25 million test kits required for the next three months on the recommendation of the Epidemiology Unit, the State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals told Parliament on Friday.

State Minister Prof Channa Jayasumana said the Epidemiology Unit has asked the Director-General of Medical Supplies Division on with the current level of Covid 19 reporting in Sri Lanka the estimated quantity will be 250,000 tests per month.

“In this context, the requirement for next three months along with the two months buffer stocks would be 1.25 million tests, this forecasting is based on the current state of the disease in the country in case of a change in the disease pattern that needs to reverse the estimate will be informed in due course,” Epidemiology unit said.

“When the WHO has pre-validated and pre-qualified these test kits to the whole world this is the first country in which the opposition has challenged that,” he said.

Jayasumana said that the recommendation to use these test kits by the state sector was given by the Epidemiology Unit on October 27.

Based on the recommendation he said, the Secretary to the Ministry of Health in various occasions held discussion with the WHO and came to an agreement to get some test kits, but WHO has informed that it will take two weeks to send those test kits.

“So the Health Secretary through the WHO office in India was able to get 200,000 rapid antigen test kits and through the Asian Development Bank, we were able to get another 300,000 test kits, So in order to get the remaining amount a tender process was started through the private sector,” Jayasumana said.

He added that Medical Supplies Division informed State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) to call for emergency tenders for emergency buying as the normal tender process would take weeks.

Moreover, he said that tender was not carried our secretly as the members of the Medicine and Medical Suppliers Association was informed about the tender while the SPC in its official website has published about the tender.

He added that SPC has not done any mistake In the tender process but as the opposition is challenging the decision of the WHO it will only make the process late.

(ECONOMYNEXT)

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EC opposes govt. move to appointment its henchmen to monitor local councils

Published

4 mins ago

2023/06/5

Thilina Walpola

By Priyan de Silva

The Election Commission (ECSL) has opposed a move by the government to appoint representatives of the Chairpersons of the Regional Development Committee to monitor local government institutions.

ECSL Chairman Nimal G. Punchihewa told The Island that the government had informed the ECSL of its plan to appoint representatives of the Chairpersons of the Regional Development Committee to monitor the local government bodies and the ECSL had decided to write to the Ministry of Local Government opposing the move, he said. A Chairman of a regional development committee ESD a representative of a particular political party and it would be unfair by other parties for such appointments to be made, the EC Chairman said.

Punchihewa said that the administration of local government institutions could be done through Municipal Commissioners and Divisional Secretaries.Many political parties had complained against the government move, he said.

News

JVP says govt. has enough funds for elections

Published

5 mins ago

2023/06/5

Thilina Walpola

By Saman Indrajith

The JVP would file a fresh application before the Supreme Court against the government for not holding the local council polls, JVP MP Vijitha Herath said yesterday.Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Pelawatte, Herath said that his party had ascertained fresh information by invoking the Right to Information Act about the funds needed for the holding of the elections and his party would file another fundamental rights case against those responsible for conducting elections.

“The LG polls were to be held on 09 March. They were postponed until 25 April, and later they were put off indefinitely. The President appoints Governors to the provinces and the local councils are under them. Now, he says no party commands the support of 50 percent of voters.

Is this reason why he is not holding elections? His claim that there are no funds for elections is not acceptable. The Election Commission (EC) has, in a letter to the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, asked for Rs 1,100 million in installments for conducting local government elections. The Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, on 07 March, informed

the EC that the latter’s request had been referred to the Minister of Finance on the same day. But so far the money has not been released. As per a report released by the Treasury, the government revenue was Rs 177,900 million in January this year alone. Of that amount, Rs 156,760 was allocated to government institutions. The Treasury has Rs 21,410 million. In February, the government revenue was at Rs. 271,750 million and of that Rs. 208,620 million was spent. The balance was Rs 63,130 million. In January and February, the Treasury had Rs 84,270 million. These figures have been officially confirmed by a Deputy Treasury Secretary. The EC is seeking only Rs 2,460 million for elections. So, the claim that there is no money for elections is false as per official records. We will submit this information to the Supreme Court when we file a fresh application. We will prove that the government has lied to people,” Herath said.

News

Rosy’s appointment violative of election laws – Mujibur

Published

6 mins ago

2023/06/5

Thilina Walpola

SJB mayoral candidate for Colombo Municipal Council Mujibur Rahuman alleges that President Ranil Wickremeisnghe has violated election laws by appointing UNP’s mayoral candidate Rosy Senanayake as the Presidential Advisor on Local Government.

Participating in a talk show hosted by a private TV channel, Rahuman said that Senanayake was a candidate for the delayed local government polls. “She has submitted nominations for the Colombo Municipal Council from the UNP list. It is illegal to appoint a candidate to such a post pending an election. The local council polls have not yet been cancelled and cases pertaining to the holding of elections are in progress,” he said, adding that of all the posts the local government candidate had been given the post of Presidential Advisor on Local Governance.

“More than three months have lapsed since Senanayake stepped down from the Colombo Mayor post, but she is still occupying the Mayor’s Residence. The President says that he is implementing the system change demanded by people. The change he is actually doing is giving appointments to his cronies. Is it the change the people expected,” Rahuman queried.