The Ministry of Health of the Marshall Islands has been admonished by auditors, who say shortages it faces reflects poor management and planning.
Deloitte was commenting on repeated claims by the ministry that it faced an emergency situation for medicines, supplies and equipment purchases, and that it could not follow the procurement law.
Avoiding the law allows the ministry to source product with one vendor and not to concern itself with competitive bids.
The auditor said this was the 11th year in a row that the ministry had violated the procurement law.
In one of several instances reported by auditors, a $US600,000 purchase was sourced to one vendor as an emergency need for daily hospital use.
But Deloitte said the fact some of the supplies arrived as much as seven months later did not support the claim the purchase was an emergency.
