Albania’s healthcare system has shown little transparency and accountability when it comes to its management of public funds. Issues were noticed especially when looking at the management of healthcare tenders in 2021.
These findings were stated in the report published Together for Life titled ‘Tender during the Pandemic’.
From March 2020 to May 2021, health institutions contracted 60 companies for the supply of hospital supplies in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. 11 companies or 18% of the total contracts were secret.
A secret tender is a secret offer of settlement made during the course of action, by one party to another, about which the court is not told until after judgment has been delivered.
All tenders approved in 2021 in the public health sector underwent little to no race. From 2016- 2021, in 55.4% of tenders, there was only one bidder in the race whereas only in 35% of cases, there were two or more.
On March 17, 2020, the ministry of health made an open call for direct procurements on 54 respirators, with a total fund of 129 million ALL.
As a result, only 5 respirators were purchased out of the total 54 that were planned, putting the lives of citizens in danger.
According to the Central Purchasing Agency, the ministry of health came in second for the total number of complaints from the Public Procurement Commission.
Several days ago, the High State Audit sued 8 public servants working at the Ministry of Health and 2 from the Concessions Treatment Agency on allegations of tender violations.
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