Tk 43.14bn sought for corona vaccine purchase

The Directorate of Health Services has placed a proposal to the Planning Commission, seeking Tk 43.14 billion to purchase and preserve Covid-19 vaccine.

However, the quantity and price of Covid-19 vaccines have not been mentioned in the proposal, according to Planning Commission sources.

In a recent project evaluation meeting, the socio-economic infrastructure division of the Planning Commission asked the health directorate to specify the quantity and price along with procurement sources, time and procedure.

It also suggested lowering the cost of vaccine purchase alongside incorporating some new components in the proposed project, sources added.

“Directorate of health services has sent a project proposal of Tk 43.14 billion for purchasing and supplying Covid-19 vaccine. We sought to know the rationale of expenditure,” said Abul Kalam Azad, Member of socio-economic infrastructure division.

“Under the project, it has been proposed to conduct a Covid-19 vaccine campaign across the country. But no number has been fixed yet. We don’t know the price also. We can’t approve a project on assumption only,” he pointed out.

“The initiative of purchasing Covid-19 vaccine is totally new. It has been sought to know on which ground the expenditure has been proposed. If the ground found rational, even the commission can increase the allocation,” Azad added.

The vaccine procurement proposal has been placed through the first revised ‘Covid-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness’ project being funded by the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Once the reshaped project proposal is put forward aligned with the commission’s suggestions, it will be tabled at Ecnec meeting soon for final approval, the commission officials informed.

The project was approved on April 18 on an urgent basis after the announcement of the World Bank for emergency Covid-19 loan assistance.

Later, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) also agreed on $100 million co-lending with the World Bank for the project to help Bangladesh fight against the potential second wave of coronavirus.

The directorate of health services now seeks to revise the project to accommodate the new fund and include vaccine purchase component in it.

According to the preliminary revised proposal, the total cost of the project stands at Tk 68.16 where WB and AIIB’s loan will be Tk 66.03 billion while GoB’s contribution has been proposed to be over Tk 2.12 billion.

The final cost of the project will be finalised after getting revised vaccine purchase proposal from the directorate of health services. The project implementation time will be April 2020 to June 2023

The planning commission has asked the directorate of health to attach a comprehensible policy with the proposal and add a flow chart of the vaccination procedure.

The suggestion also includes enough vaccination campaign, procurement of two waste management vans for two city corporations of Dhaka city and setting up medical waste management plants in 10 districts, among others.