The Health Ministry has denied President-Elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's allegations about the State Trading Organization's (STO) plans to sign a special medicine supply agreement with an Indian company.
At a press briefing on Saturday, the President-Elect's Spokesman Mohamed Firuzul said the company was from Tamil Nadu and that Dr. Muizzu had asked STO not to sign the agreement.
Health Ministry Media Director Aishath Shathfa said there was no such agreement and speculated that the President-Elect's spokesman might have been referring to a purchase order (PO) raised to import medicine under the normal process.
"A PO will be raised every six months to buy medicine. Not only during the transitional period, it is always done every six months," she said.
Aside from raising purchase orders for importing medicine next January, no other supply-related work is ongoing, she said.
"The ministry has not tried to sign any other such agreement," Shathfa said.
Despite denials from both the Health Ministry and STO, Spokesman Firuzul repeated the allegation today and insisted that it was based on valid information.
Questioned by Adhadhu, Firuzul said the information came from visits to ministries and offices by teams working on the transition.
"More than one institution would be part of such agreements. So it was information received through efforts made [by teams of the Transition Office] within institutions," he said.
Firuzul noted the government's previous denials of such statements by the President-Elect's office. But the allegation about the agreement is true, he said.
The appeal by the President-Elect's office to scrap plans to sign the alleged medicine supply deal came after the office expressed concern last week over the failure to renew stocks of medical consumables.
Orders must be made twice a year for restocking but the Health Ministry has not placed any orders so far this year, Firuzul said last week, raising fears of some health services coming to a halt in mid-November.
