"A man who has made a mistake and does not correct it, is making another, bigger mistake." The Venezuelan government attested to the statement attributed to China's philosopher Confucius. Months after Venezuelans were surprised that more than 100,000 tons of food imported by the Venezuelan Food Producer and Distributor (Pdval) were rotten and stockpiled in several ports, the Venezuelan Comptroller's General Office reported that thousands of pounds of medicines and pharmaceutical products imported from Cuba by the Venezuelan Ministry of Health have had the same fate.

The information is included in the annual report submitted this week to the National Assembly by Clodosbaldo Russián, Venezuela's Comptroller General. According to the report, there was an excessive purchase of pharmaceutical products, delays in customs clearance and storage of medical supplies in warehouses that failed to meet the conditions for an effective conservation.

After auditing 20 out of the 30 contracts that the Ministry of Health and the Servicio Autónomo de Elaboraciones Farmacéuticas, Sefar (Institute of Pharmaceutical Products) signed in Havana between 2005 and the first half of 2010, Russián reported that the Ministry of Health received medications "with a composition and type that do not correspond to those established in some contracts."

The Comptroller General' Office also found that 27,000 syringes were damaged in the warehouses of the Ministry of Health.