The Slovenian public is currently following two active cases of suspected corruption in the healthcare sector. An investigation into alleged overpayments for the servicing of medical equipment is ongoing at the Ljubljana University Medical Centre. Additionally, in the case of this year’s tenders for the purchase of Type C ambulances, it is suspected that the tender was rigged in favour of one of the domestic suppliers.
The amendment to the Law on Public Procurement in the Healthcare Sector and the creation of the Reference Price Bureau during the previous Janša government contributed to the establishment of a system where purchase prices can be compared, in order to put an end to the practice of unnecessary overpayments at the expense of Slovenian taxpayers. When the current government decided to abolish the two changes, there were criticisms that this would contribute to weakening public healthcare and strengthening corruption in the healthcare sector.
If we look at two recent cases of suspected corruption in the healthcare sector related to procurement, we can see that the warnings were well-founded. While the country’s largest hospital, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, is under investigation for alleged overpayments for the servicing of medical equipment, in the case of this year’s tenders for the purchase of Type C ambulances, it is suspected that the tender was tailor-made for a domestic ambulance supplier.
Following a report of irregularities in the servicing of medical equipment at the Surgical Clinic, University Medical Centre Ljubljana decided to “launch an investigation into alleged overpayments for the servicing of medical equipment and related employees of the Medical Centre.” In randomly selected invoices of the company Medicoengineering during the contract period, the Corporate Security Service of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, which is also in charge of the investigation, found that VAT had been charged on the service hours. According to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), the case concerns two cases of servicing of Maquet operating tables. Medicoengineering said that they were still investigating the cases and that the amount in question was around 10,000 euros.
Medicoengineering is the company that has supplied the country’s largest hospital with surgical knives, Maquet and Hillroom medical beds and extracorporeal blood circulation devices in the past. They work with the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, as well as the Ministry of Health, “on the design and construction or renovation of operating theatres.” However, the University Medical Centre Ljubljana said that it should have been the commercial administrator who would have detected the overpayments. However, she is no longer employed there. And there has already been a change in the management of the medical equipment maintenance service. “When the head of the service was informed of the suspected irregularities, he resigned,” University Medical Centre Ljubljana told a media outlet close to the government.
The investigation, launched in August, is still ongoing. It could last until February, which is thought to be due to the length of the case. If signs of a criminal offence are found, the case will be handed over to the police, University Medical Centre Ljubljana said. The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) will be informed if a breach of the Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act is detected.
The company Medicop as the absolute winner
This year’s tenders for the purchase of resuscitation ambulances (type C ambulances) have also been in the spotlight, with the company Medicop, owned by Peter Podlunšek, representing the “sole bidder and absolute winner” of the tenders. According to the media outlet Info 360, insiders warn that uneconomic behaviour on the part of the management of public institutions can be detected in this case. For example, while in neighbouring Italy, the price of a converted ambulance is 80,000 euros, here the price is twice as high!
The tenders in the health centres in Velenje and Logatec are almost identical in terms of content, with only a few differences in a few items of medical equipment. The Ministry of Health explained that the rules allow for a rather free tender design (the vehicles need to meet the EN 1789:2007 standard and contain medical equipment that complies with the Regulations on the Emergency Medical Aid Service), but many people may feel, when they read through the tenders, that they were prepared using the “copy-paste” system.
Experts familiar with the situation told the aforementioned media outlet that if they wanted to be economical, they would have bought medical equipment in batches, rather than lumping it in with the purchase of an ambulance. This would lead to a narrowing of competition. They also pointed out that tenders are rigged to allow a particular bidder to apply. In the case of the tender in Velenje, for example, it was required that a transport defibrillator with a biphasic reduced sine wave defibrillator of up to 360 J be supplied alongside the vehicle. However, the Director of the Velenje Health Centre, Janez Kramar, denied that the tender was rigged.
“The tender was definitely not rigged, otherwise, I believe that the tenderers who asked questions on the portal would have filed an audit,” Kramar said, but the media outlet also pointed out that we need to keep in mind the fact that the audit would have cost the complainants thousands of euros. Kramar did not explain why they did not decide to split the tender into lots, as this would have allowed them to have a wider range of suppliers. However, it was the members of the committee who established almost identical characteristics for the purchase of the ambulance, which were apparent from the tender published by the Logatec Health Centre. However, the portal also noted that the municipality of Kamnik had also launched a tender for the purchase of an ambulance, under which they were also seeking to receive a defibrillator with the exact same characteristics as the one in the Velenje tender. A contract for the purchase of an ambulance worth 248,386.27 euros, including VAT, was signed this month with the company Medicop, which has received 67 million euros of public money since 2003.
A. H.
