Senior health ministry officials spent three hours before the Assembly’s health committee on Monday defending the $310m procurement of this autumn’s booster vaccines, after the national audit office queried a tender window it called “unusually compressed”.
The contract, awarded in May to a consortium led by Halcyon Biologics, ran a three-week tender against the standard six. Officials told the committee the timetable was set by manufacturing slots, not preference. “We followed every rule in the book; the book allows urgency when supply windows close,” said permanent secretary Dr Livia Ansel.
Auditors have not alleged impropriety. Their interim note focuses on whether the compressed window narrowed the field: only two consortia ultimately bid, against five in the previous cycle.
Health Minister Corin Aldis told members the programme — 4.2 million doses targeted at over-65s, clinical risk groups and health workers — remains on schedule to begin on 22 September, and that unit pricing came in 4 per cent below last year’s.
The committee will publish its findings in October. Its chair, Concord member Vela Dorn, closed the session with the line likely to headline that report: “Speed is a reason. It is not an exemption.”