Chairman of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), Jagdeo Singh, on Wednesday detailed widespread abuse in the system for issuing special import permits to pharmaceutical companies, as the Committee continued its examination of the State’s acquisition of pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Singh was critical during his interrogation of the former Chief Chemist and Director of the Food and Drugs Division of the Ministry of Health.
“Isn’t it true that the special permission process was being misused by importers to avoid registration after they had gotten their special permission permits? Doesn’t that mean that the importers were getting this special permit, import permit, and were using it continuously to import these pharmaceuticals?”
Executive Manager, Analytical Services, CARIRI, Mr. Farz Khan: “Yes, hence the reason why the CMO said to us… to bring it to an end.”
Mr. Singh: “And that is a breach of the policy of the Ministry that a special import permit, whether it was legal or not, which we say is illegal – I think we’ve established that it is illegal – expired on one importation, am I not correct?”
The PAAC Chairman noted that in 2015, special import permits were issued in just four instances, and added that the process quickly escalated.
“Almost 3,000 times. This power was exercised almost 3,000 times between January of 2015 to December of 2024. Almost 3,000 times this power was exercised and nobody here—five senior officials— are unable to point me to the specific provision in law?”
The provision that Mr. Singh was referring to requires the Chief Medical Officer solely to issue those special import permits.
He stated, “There are three separate guardrails within the regulatory system to protect the public health interest of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. So for the avoidance of doubt and for absolute clarity, it is the Drug Registration Unit that reviews documents, it is the DAC that reviews documents, it is the CMO which conducts a further review and then ultimately it is the Minister.”
Mr. Singh noted that most of the 3,000 permits over the period went to Smith Robertson and Bryden Pi.