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“Data collected by STT officials currently suggests that representatives of companies trading in medical devices and equipment, possibly operating by various illegal means, may have allowed companies to illegally gain purchases from various Lithuanian medical institutions for more of 3 million – read in the report of the Office.
Currently, 35 people have been charged with various crimes of corruption, four of whom are heads of private companies and six are heads of medical institutions.
According to the STT, more than a hundred crimes are being investigated. It is suspected that they may have involved more than a dozen medical institutions from different municipalities, their managers and other people responsible for public procurement.
According to BNS, Daiva Kanopienė, director of the Šeškinė polyclinic, and Narimantas Markevičius, head of the Vilnius Clinical Hospital, were arrested and suspected on Wednesday. In addition, the director of the medical equipment company Limeta, a member of the Kretinga District Council, the former parliamentary social democrat Virginijus Domarkas, as well as the director of the company Limeta NT, shareholder of both companies Kęstutis Kutkauskas. He is the husband of Jelena Kutkauskienė, director of the Vilnius Republican University Hospital.
D. Kanopienė, the detained head of the Šeškinė polyclinic, is the wife of Vidmantas Kanopa, a member of the Seimas and a Social Democrat.
Erland Sudeikis, chairman of the board and shareholder of Graina, a company that also markets medical equipment and is based in Panevėžys, was also suspected.
According to the Central Public Procurement Portal, Limeta and Graina have won dozens of acquisitions in various health institutions in the country.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation also released more information on the pre-trial investigation carried out by the STT and the Prosecutor’s Office for alleged corruption in the organization and participation in public procurement in the field of health.
The prosecutor of the Department of Investigation of Organized Crime and Corruption of the General Prosecutor’s Office, Žydrūnas Radišauskas, stated that the object of the investigation was the public contracts carried out by health institutions. “They provided medical equipment and various devices for a total value of more than three million euros,” he said, adding that the study period was longer than a year and that the medical institutions themselves may have had prior agreements with private companies. Currently there are at least five of these companies in the sights of researchers.
According to Ž.Radišauskas, during recruitment competition was restricted and other participants in the tender were discriminated against, and the contracting conditions were applied to specific companies.
The investigation includes five private companies and ten medical institutions, and suspicions were made against up to 35 people, one suspect, the head of the company Graina E. Sudeikis, was placed in preventive detention. The prosecutor clarified that the number of suspects or the measures taken against them may change in the future.
Darius Balčiūnas, head of the Central Board of Investigation of the STT, stated that agents from all the territorial units of the STT in the country participated in this operation: in total, about 100 agents participated, 150 searches were carried out, around 270 thousand were taken. during them. euros in various currencies.
“The data suggests that the bribery was aimed at winning public purchases for medical equipment and supplies,” he said.
D. Balčiūnas did not want to name more companies that appear in the study, except those that have already been publicized. He also confirmed that the investigation recorded moments of taking and delivering a bribe, and some amounts exceeding 10,000. euros. The bribes were given in cash.
