The scandal deepens/ The original Sterilization contract disappears, SPAK: It is not found in the archives of the Ministry of Health

2023-08-19 15:50:00, Aktualitet CNA

The scandal deepens/ The original Sterilization contract disappears, SPAK: It is

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According to the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, the original sterilization concession contract has disappeared and is not even found in the archives of the Ministry of Health.

This scandal is expected to further expand the investigations into the affair with the sterilization concession.

The document of SPAK was published this Saturday by ëblame and highlights an unbelievable and also criminally punishable situation.

"In implementation of this decision, judicial police officers have seized the concession file at the Ministry of Health. It should also be noted that despite all the searches in the institution and the archive of the Ministry of Health, the officials of this institution did not find and did not make available the original concession contract nor the relevant annexes. The seized documentation is the original of the numbered copy sent by the Ministry of Health regarding the concession granting procedure with letter number 910/1 dated February 19, 2020."

By order of SPAK, eight arrest warrants have been issued related to the sterilization concession, a tender worth 100 million euros. Two people have been arrested by the police regarding this concession. As previously warned by CNA, the former Deputy Minister of Health, Klodian Rjepaj and the businessman Ilir Rrapaj have been arrested.

But what is the sterilization contract worth 100 million euros?

It is about a PPP project with budgetary support in health.

The contract for the sterilization concession was signed in 2015 between the former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj and the concessionaire company SaniService whose shareholders are Investital LLC and the Italian companies "Servizi Italia", "Tecnosanimed" and "U.Jet Srl".

The company, Investital LLC in this contract owned the majority of the shares. This company was founded with a capital of 1 thousand euros in Kosovo by Ilir Rrapaj.

Earlier, BIRN published an article that talked about the founder of this company and said that Rrapaj returned to Albania after the 2013 elections. According to this media, before winning the concession, Rrapaj established frequent contacts with the Minister of Health at that time , Ilir Beqaj.

BIRN interviewed doctors and surgeons from various hospitals in Tirana, who claimed that the chosen formula often increases the costs even fictitiously. The doctors admitted that they used expensive sets for microsurgery and were often forced to open two or three sets during an operation to find the surgical instrument they needed. The former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj, defended the contract in a written response to BIRN, despite the increased costs and the charges registered by the Prosecutor's Office, writes BIRN.

The sterilization center was built in 2009 through a loan that the Albanian government received from the Bank of the Council of Europe - CEB. Its transfer under the administration of the concessionaire became part of the investigation carried out by the Prosecutor's Office of Tirana - which was dismissed in September 2016 without consequences, writes BIRN.

The concession company "SaniService" has sold surgical sets to the Ministry of Health for prices ranging from 16,000 ALL to 45,000 ALL (with VAT)./ CNA