the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obradoraccused this Friday the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) of not complying with the delivery of all the medicines contracted in the agreement made with the Government of Mexico.
They have not been able to supply, supply all the keys, all the medicines and a complementary mechanism has had to be carried out for the purchase of medicines abroad,” López Obrador said in his daily press conference.
It might interest you: AMLO wants Banxico to seek economic growth and not only fight inflation
His statements come while it is reported in the press that the Mexican government will cancel the agreement it signed on July 31, 2020 with UNOPS for the international agency to acquire medicines and medical supplies for the public sector until 2024.
Analyze contract cancellation
The mechanism is one of López Obrador’s strategies to resolve the drug shortage crisis that worsened in his government after taking office in December 2018.
In this context, the Mexican leader commented that “sometimes you have the idea, and it is good that it is aired, that international organizations, especially UN agencies, are efficient, transparent, there is honesty, and it usually happens that there are exceptions. which is not the rule.
Just as there are organizations that depend on the UN, which act responsibly, there are others that do not. It is not because they already belong to the UN they are infallible, they are responsible. Then we are going to review this contract”, indicated the president.
The president clarified that “it has not yet been decided” if the Government will definitively cancel the contract.
UNOPS stated in October that they have delivered 99% of the keys contracted by the agency to the warehouses on time, that it is responsible for 28% of the total expenditure of the Mexican public health system and that it has generated benefits of 10,000 million pesos for the Government.
The crisis due to the shortage of medicines in the health sector worsened in 2019 due to budget cuts and changes in the purchase of medicines by the Government of López Obrador, who has justified the modifications because there was corruption in the contracts.
While in 2020 this was complicated by the coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last:
EFE International news agency based in Madrid and present in more than 110 countries.