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Kay-Marie Fletch­er

For­mer Health min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh is fac­ing se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions of po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence fol­low­ing claims that he pres­sured the state pro­cure­ment agency, the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Prop­er­ty De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NIPDEC), to give pref­er­en­tial pay­ment to a ma­jor phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny.

Dur­ing a Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) ses­sion yes­ter­day, chaired by Jagdeo Singh, ten­sions ran high as the in­quiry in­to the state’s phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal ac­qui­si­tions high­light­ed both al­leged po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence and what was de­scribed as a rogue op­er­a­tion that went un­de­tect­ed for eight years.