A legal adviser from the Ministry of Health commented that the Attorney General’s Office requested an extension until September 1 to study the counterproposal presented by the Covax mechanism in the framework of the negotiations regarding Paraguay’s demand that they be returned more than five and a half million dollars for undelivered anticovid vaccines. The Health Minister said that by the time the missing vaccines were offered, Paraguay already had enough doses.
July 28, 2023, – 09:47
Charging …
In communication with ABC Cardinal this Friday, Gustavo Irala, legal adviser to the Ministry of Public Health, commented that the Attorney General’s Office requested an extension until September 1 to analyze the counterproposal put forward to Paraguay by the Covax mechanism, to which the country claims the return of more than 5.6 million dollars for anticovid vaccines not provided.
In 2020, Paraguay resorted to the Covax mechanism of the World Health Organization for the acquisition of 4,279,800 doses of the covid-19 vaccine, but only a little more than a million of those doses were delivered, so the country requires the return of part of the payment.
Read more: Covax raises a counterproposal instead of paying a debt of US$ 6 million to Paraguay
Irala declined to comment on the details of Covax’s counterproposal, saying it is being analyzed by the attorney general’s office, which has requested an extension until September 1 to study the proposal and acquire relevant documents before ruling.
The Minister of Health, Julio Borba, expressed himself along similar lines, pointing out that there are confidentiality clauses in the contract, for which reason he said he would prefer to wait for the Attorney General’s Office to give its recommendations.
“We exhausted all instances of dialogue, we met countless times with the people of Covax to reach a friendly agreement to close the contract,” said the minister.
The breach of the entire agreement between Covax and Paraguay, which expires on September 17, forced Paraguay to purchase the vaccines directly from pharmaceutical companies to start its immunization campaign against covid-19 in 2021.
Read more: Covax: endless negotiation to recover US$ 5,670,990
“At the time, the amount we needed was not received, we were forced to sign other contracts,” said Irala.
Vaccines available, but late
Covax’s position is that “it always made all the vaccines available,” to which Paraguay responded that the doses were not available “at the times we needed them,” explained the Health Ministry adviser, noting that when Covax The vaccine supply was already covered by the purchases made and donations received, so the Covax doses were rejected.
“In October or November they offered us, when we were already in the middle of the vaccination process,” said Minister Borba for his part.
If both parties do not reach a conciliatory agreement, the matter must go to arbitration.
2023-07-28 13:47:00
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