The Kerala Government Pharmacist's Association (KGPA) has demanded the state government to reconstitute the Central Purchase Committee (CPC) by endorsing secretary of the state health department as permanent chairman of the Committee.

In a letter to the Health and Family Welfare Minister of Kerala, the KGPA alleged that the faulty functioning of the CPC and misuse of its powers by bureaucrats have resulted in availability of substandard drugs worth Rs 15 crore in various government hospitals in the state. The change of charge on CPC in alternate years, from Director of Health Services and Director of Medical Education, and the centralization of powers on the Chairman in the last few years led to huge losses for the state, they added.

The Association asked the government to reconstitute CPC, which handles Rs 100 crore drug procurement for the government hospitals in Kerala, by appointing the Secretary of Health department as the chairman and the drug stores officer, assistant director of pharmacy service, state store verification officer and additional director (medical) as the members of the committee. The demand is to withdraw the rights of CPC on issuing supply orders and financial powers thereby restricting the rights only on executing policy decisions.

The drug procurement policy announced in 2004 should be implemented to ensure the quality of drugs in government purchase. The system should monitor that the drugs are supplied directly by the manufacturers, in their purchase invoice and district medical stores should test the samples for quality assurance. Steps should be taken to retrieve the rights of district medical stores to place supply order and payment directly to the companies, as per the requirement of each district. The letter also suggests that the CPC should arrange advanced purchase for each quarter year, weeding out chances for scarcity of drugs.

KGPA also demanded that the government should conduct probe into the malpractices of the purchase committee under Chairmanship of Dr V K Rajan, the then Director of Health Services, in the year 2003-04. The Association alleged that the system of issuing supply orders and payments for each district medical stores under the respective district medical officers was under the control of the Chairman during this period.

Meanwhile, P K Sreemathi, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Kerala, has ensured that the government will appoint an expert committee to discuss the demands of the Association. While speaking in the state meeting of KGPA, the minister assured that the government will take right steps in this matter once the committee submits report after two months.