New information on the BTSB's dealings with Accu-Science and Intra-Science, the two companies linked to the former board employee, Mr Sean Hanratty, emerged at the tribunal yesterday.
On his fifth and penultimate day giving evidence, Mr Ted Keyes, the former BTSB chief executive officer, was questioned about an internal Department of Health memo dated June 23rd, 1990 in which concern was expressed at the substantial profits earned by Intra-Science under a commercial arrangement with the board.
A sister company of AccuScience, of which Mr Hanratty was a founder, Intra-Science had been contracted to supply consumable bags, or blood packs, to the board on behalf of a Dutch firm, NPBI.
The memo noted that the then chairman of the board, Mr Noel Fox, estimated the "middleman" was getting in the region of £150,000 for "merely passing on the packs" to the BTSB.
It suggested Mr Keyes should "scrap" the agreement with Intra-Science and seek supplies directly from Holland.
Mr Keyes said he pursued this suggestion but was told by NPBI that it needed its agent in Ireland to service equipment and packs. He added the board succeeded in negotiating the price from £7.90 down to £5.50 per pack, which was £1.40 below the standard European price.
On 80,000 packs a year, the reduction would have been close to eliminating Intra-Science's £150,000 margin, Mr Keyes said.
The former chief executive also gave evidence on the investigation into Mr Hanratty's alleged shareholding in Accu-Science. The inquiry took place after the Workers' Party issued a press statement in December 1990 claiming a senior executive of the BTSB was a director and shareholder in the company and had used his influence to ensure Intra-Science got the blood-pack contract.
Expanding on evidence he gave last Friday, Mr Keyes said he interviewed both Mr Hanratty and Mr Michael O'Donnell, a cofounder of Accu-Science, about the allegations. He asked them both whether Mr Hanratty had got any beneficial interests from his membership of the board and "the answer was no".
Mr Hanratty, who died in 1996, was a former senior technical officer with the board. He was also in charge of all pre-1986 dispatch records, which were destroyed against Mr Keyes's instructions in 1993.
The tribunal was told the records would have been crucial to haemophiliacs in their actions against pharmaceutical companies over infections.
Explaining his interest in AccuScience, Mr Hanratty had claimed to Mr Keyes that he had disposed of his shareholding in 1982 when he realised there was a potential conflict of interest but that it appeared the change of directorship form had been mislaid by the Companies Registration Office.
Mr Keyes accepted Mr Hanratty's explanation and, moreover, told the board that Mr Hanratty had made his shareholding known to the BTSB prior to 1983.
Mr Keyes confirmed yesterday that he made this claim without any corroborating documentary evidence and despite the fact that he "would have expected if something had been raised with the board it would have been recorded."
The significance to the tribunal of Mr Hanratty's association with Accu-Science is not so much related to the blood pack deal but, rather, to the supply of blood products for haemophiliacs.
Mr Keyes told the tribunal that Accu-Science acted as a supplier of Factor 8 and Factor 9 for the Cutter pharmaceutical firm in early 1984 and early 1985 respectively.
These commercial blood products have been linked with the infection of a number of haemophiliacs and the question arose yesterday as to whether Mr Hanratty had any role in their selection.
Mr Keyes said Mr Hanratty would not have had any such role but that Mr John Cann, the former chief technical officer, would have decided on which products to supply.
Mr Cann is due to give evidence at a future sitting.