Aven­ta has de­nied that it has re­ceived pref­er­en­tial treat­ment in terms of pay­ments by NIPDEC.

In an in­ter­nal memo dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 27, the com­pa­ny ad­dressed staff fol­low­ing a Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) meet­ing on Feb­ru­ary 23, when Nipdec gen­er­al man­ag­er Vyas Ram­phalie told the com­mit­tee that be­tween 2023 and 2025, he had been in­struct­ed by for­mer Health Min­is­ter to pri­ori­tise pay­ments to Aven­ta, the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing arm of the Agos­ti­ni Group, over all oth­er com­pa­nies.

Deyals­ingh has since de­nied the al­le­ga­tion.