Violations uncovered at health ministry over Covid equipment purchases

The Government Inspectorate has determined that the Ministry of Health and its units committed multiple violations in the procurement of medical equipment, materials and testing kits for Covid-19 prevention.

According to the inspectorate's conclusion released on Friday, the appraisal and approval of bidding package prices and contractor selection by the health ministry showed signs of a lack of responsibility, causing serious consequences.

Packages flagged for violations included the Olympus CV-170 model bronchoscopy systems at Hue Central Hospital and Thai Nguyen Central Hospital, and Fujifim digital portable X-ray machines at the National Lung Hospital and Hue Central Hospital.

The ministry also issued a number of documents notifying the prices of biological products and medical equipment for Covid-19 testing and diagnosis with unclear content about "reference" and "published price" information in the appendices. This may have led to misleading prices announced by enterprises or the health ministry.

According to the inspectorate, medical equipment is not an item controlled by the state, so sales prices do not fall within the remit of a state management agency like the health ministry.

Three cases subject to investigation

The inspectors determined that the borrowing and procurement of goods by the HCMC Pasteur Institute from 2020-2021 showed signs of violating regulations on bidding, causing serious consequences, so the case has been transferred to the public security ministry for consideration.

In this case, a number of companies lent goods to the Pasteur Institute, namely Phuong Dong, Vitech Science Development, Roche Vietnam, and Life Science Development.

According to the conclusion, Tai Loc Technology Service and Trading Company Limited won multiple bidding packages for hospitals under the health ministry with a high value. However, after winning the bids, Tai Loc did not buy directly from importers or authorized dealers, but instead bought through multiple intermediaries to supply hospitals.

This caused the price of the equipment to go up by about 2 to 3.1 times higher than the import price after tax.

The inspectors assessed that this "showed signs of taking advantage of the epidemic to raise the selling price abnormally high", so it has also transferred the case to the public security ministry for investigation.

The third case transferred to the public security ministry is the appraisal and approval of bidding package prices and contract selection plans at the health ministry.

Specifically, the procurement packages are those related to the Olympus bronchoscopy systems and Fujifim's digital portable X-ray machines. The inspectors said that the appraisal and approval of the prices of these bidding packages showed signs of violating the law.

After pointing out the violations, the Government Inspectorate proposed the Ministry of Health organize a review of the responsibilities and violations of ministerial leaders in directing and approving plans for equipment purchases, contractor selection and the management of receipt, distribution and vaccinations.