Hidden agenda to privatise GPO: Wichai
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The dismissal of Dr Witit Artavatkun, chief of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation, occurred due to political intervention with the hidden agenda to privatise the organisation, ex-GPO board chairman Dr Wichai Chokewiwat alleged.
“The end of good governance practised at the GPO is next, before a possible privatisation,” he added.
Citing an interview by the unnamed head of a network of the state-enterprise unions, Wichai said Public Health Minister Pradit Sinthawan-arong once asked this person: “If I want to privatise GPO, would you oppose it?”
The GPO’s principle function – serving the public as the state’s pharmaceutical producer – would be dropped and replaced by a profit-driven agenda, after privatisation.
“A privatised GPO would no longer be able to produce cheap medicines for public use, but would pave the way for foreign firms to produce medicines at a much higher cost,” he said.
Citing his five-year tenure as head of the GPO board, Wichai said the organisation should remain a state enterprise. He defended his own decision to dismiss a former GPO chief, Dr Mongkhol Jiwasantikarn, saying the process was transparent and the factors prompting Mongkhol’s removal were fair and based on legal criteria.
“Political influence on state agencies and officials today is so powerful that it causes senior officials to lie. That way they feel they are not forced to make decisions,” he said.
Meanwhile, head of the Rural Doctors Society, Dr Kriengsak Vacharanukulkieti, denied that the society was behind a rally planned by kidney patients demanding the dismissal of Pradit. A large group of protesters are planning to rally outside PM Yingluck Shinawatra’s home next week to protest against the government’s planned co-payment scheme.
