Akash Sama­roo

A par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tee prob­ing the pro­cure­ment of med­i­cines is ex­am­in­ing whether a con­flict of in­ter­est and break­down in over­sight oc­curred, with at­ten­tion now fo­cused on Prin­ci­pal Med­ical Of­fi­cer (PMO) Dr Maryam Ab­dool- Richards.

As the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) con­tin­ued its probe in­to the State’s ac­qui­si­tion of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, fo­cus briefly shift­ed from Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer (CMO) Dr Roshan Paras­ram to Dr Maryam Ab­dool Richards, an­oth­er pub­lic of­fi­cial who rose to promi­nence dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic through the Gov­ern­ment’s reg­u­lar me­dia brief­in­gs.