DSI to probe GPO vaccine factory bid, painkiller
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) plans to probe the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) for not canceling its bid for the section 1 construction of the GPO vaccine factory in Saraburi, when only one company applied for the controvers
Thanin Prempree, director of the DSI's corruption prevention and suppression centre, yesterday said the DSI would probe three key points in the case.
First, the reasons behind the changes in machine specifications (into one that produces live attenuated vaccine) that contributed to the construction delay. Second, whether the construction period was set according to the regulations. Thirdly, whether there was collusion in the e-auction for the section 1 construction. Only one company made an offer and there was no competition, while ten companies had bought bidding application forms.
Thanin said the GPO should have called off the bidding session and organised another. But the GPO hired the company and negotiated the price from Bt337,050,000 to Bt321,000,000 he said, adding that the GPO governor was responsible for proposing the GPO board hire the company.
In a separate investigation probing GPO’s alleged paracetamol painkiller ingredient contamination, Thanin said DSI investigators would on April 5 check on how ingredients were stored. It would send a letter about the GPO factory’s fact-finding results on what could cause the contamination and how severe was the situation. If the contamination was within safe limits, the DSI would end the probe, he added.
Meanwhile, Public Health Minister’s secretary Kamon Bandaiphetch, who had filed the complaint for DSI to probe the two above-mentioned cases, went with GPO board chairman Pipit Yingseri and GPO director Withit Atthawetchakul to inspect the paracetamol ingredients at the Thai Post warehouse on Bangkok’s Chaeng Wattana Road yesterday. The officials inspected the ingredients stored in some 100 fifty-kilogram barrels and Withit told them a total of 148 tonnes of problematic ingredients, worth Bt23 million, would be returned to the Chinese supplier within two weeks.
Withit affirmed that this lot of ingredients hadn’t yet been used in commercial painkiller tablets, but was only used in a trial-based production that led to the discovery of contamination by the factory.
