Madhya Pradesh to blacklist drug suppliers for delay

BHOPAL - The Madhya Pradesh government will blacklist suppliers of drugs and equipment if they fail to deliver required items within 45 days of placing an order, an official said Wednesday.

Under the new drug policy, “if a supplier does not supply the required items within 45 days, he will be blacklisted and penalty of up to 20 percent will be imposed on him”, the official said.

“At the same time if an officer does not make payments against purchases within 30 days of the supply, the interest accruing on this amount will be recovered from him.”

The official said the Madhya Pradesh government is soon going to implement the policy which will make the entire process of medical supplies, from purchase of medicines to payments against the purchases, time-bound. The policy aims at ensuring that there is no shortage of medicines at any level.

Drug purchase will be decentralised and 80 percent of the amount allocated for the purchase of medicines, equipment and other materials will be spent at the district level by the chief medical and health officer, civil surgeon and other authorised purchase officers while the rest will be spent in accordance with the central purchase system.

An official at the district level will be responsible for maintaining stocks of three months.

The new policy also provides for testing of medicines. The cost of the sample medicines will be borne by the supplier and if some medicines are found sub-standard or underweight, these will be replaced by the supplier.