Sri Lanka, Aug. 24 -- Minister of Health and Mass Media, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, says the current shortage of certain medicines in the country is due to the previous government bypassing the proper tender process when importing medicine.

To address the issue, the government has allocated Rs. 35 billion to hospitals for regional-level medicine purchases, he said.

Commenting further, the Minister stated, "The issue of not being able to supply medicines now is a result of not holding a tender last year. If a tender had been called, the medicines would have been delivered properly. We have now initiated the tendering process for next year."

Dr. Jayatissa further noted that the government has taken two steps to manage the temporary shortage....