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Discrepancies Force Health Ministry to Cancel $30m Bid

May 21 , 2022

The Ministry of Health has cut short a 30 million dollar tender for the procurement of mosquito nets following allegations of discrepancies in the integrity of the bidding process. Floated through the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency, the international tender was in the final evaluation stages when the Public Procurement & Disposal Service and the Federal Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission raised alarms over participants' eligibility. Their investigations allege some bidders were participating with invalid licenses, while other did not meet criteria set in the bid documents. Officials at the Ministry have scrapped the bid while they conduct further investigations into the allegations. Ethiopia accounted for around one percent of the 2.3 million malaria cases recorded in 2020, according to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Radar

HEFTY GREEN

Street vendors around the Shola area take a rest in the shades of the capital's newly planted trees. Upon reporting on its 10-month performance before Parliament, the Agriculture Minister, Girma Amentie indicated that up to 43pc of the arable land in the country has been rendered acidic. This requires large amounts of limestone to be imported from abroad; the tight forex crunch has not allowed the Ministry of Finance to fund the endeavour easily. Following the rallying call of the Prime Minister...

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Radar

DAMP DENIMS

Residents of communal houses around the Weji area hang their clothes on the fences outside. Textile manufacturing accounts for 87pc of Ethiopia's products from industrial parks. Expulsion from the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA) due to the war in the North resulted in Ethiopia being expelled from the preferential trade act. Most companies choosing to rent sheds within the industrial parks do so out of a desire to access the duty-free privileges provided for African countries. Ethiopi...

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Radar

PRICY PLEASURES

Vendors put traditional beauty products from the Somali Regional State for sale around Mexico area. In November of last year, the Ministry of Finance banned imported goods under 38 categories, including cosmetics, packed foods, and furniture, from accessing letters of credit. The move resulted in the tripling of costs for cosmetic items like lipstick and nail polish. As Ethiopia ran a 14 billion dollar merchandise trade deficit last year due to import bills hiking by 26pc , a tight clampdown on...

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