The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, my Question by Private Notice concerns procurement delays causing shortages of medicines. Sri Lanka now faces severe and prolonged shortages of essential drugs in state hospitals and public institutions, amounting to a national public health emergency, stemming from systemic, financial and administrative failures, with impacts on life-saving medicines, insulin, antibiotics, oncology drugs, and NCD treatments. I request clarifications on: 1) Current shortages by region and type; 2) Percentage of essential medicines below minimum stock levels in past 12 months; 3) Number of tenders delayed, cancelled, or failed, and reforms per Auditor General/COPE; 4) Breakdowns between MoH, MSD, SPC and private suppliers and how corrected; 5) Average timelines for emergency procurement, open tenders and WHO-supported mechanisms and alignment with international good practices; 6) Consideration of e-procurement and end-to-end stock monitoring; 7) Will Government table a National Medicines Procurement Policy ensuring quality, transparency, legal enforceability and stakeholder input; 8) Why there is no integrated stock system among MSD, SPC, NMRA and hospitals, and when it will operate; 9) Medium-term plan to boost local pharma production and cut imports; 10) Considering delays and inefficiencies, will Government procure urgently needed medicines via transparent tenders from GMC-approved private suppliers?

¶ 02 I request two weeks to answer.