New Delhi: The World Bank and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development have refused to finance the Indian government's purchase of condoms to fight HIV/Aids because of an alleged lack of transparency in procurement procedures.The government now obtains condoms from local manufacturers such as the state-owned Hindustan Latex, which supplies hundreds of millions of contraceptives required under National Aids Control Programme-III, a five-year plan starting next month.
HIV prevention organisations are angry about the high cost of government-procured condoms, saying that scarce funds are being wasted in India, which has the world's highest HIV caseload, according to UNAids, with an estimated 5.7 million carriers last year.
Frustrating
"Domestic preference is playing a role here that it wouldn't in other countries, leading to a situation where India is paying 30-40 per cent more than the world average," said a senior international civil servant running an HIV programme in India. "It is very frustrating but the government says it's non-negotiable."
The head of a non-governmental HIV/Aids body said: "Over a billion condoms are being manufactured under government contract every year at a price that is 25-40 per cent above the market price. It all looks very ugly to me."
K.Sujatha Rao, director-general of the National Aids Control Organisation, which runs the NACP-III, said she knew donors wanted international bidders involved in the procurement process but quality was a critical issue.
"Korean condoms are very cheap but they are quite suspect and are bound to be disastrous. I want good-quality condoms," she said.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce