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Thus, on Tuesday, the Prime Minister responded to the question posed by the opposition representatives about the rapid tests, whose acquisition circumstances are being clarified by the forces of order.
The Financial Crimes Investigation Service is conducting a pretrial investigation on $ 6 million. purchase of rapid coronavirus tests worth EUR. In this case, the Vice Chancellor of the Government, Lukas Savickas, and the Advisor to the Prime Minister of Health, Jonas Kairys, were questioned as special witnesses.
Luke April / 15min photo / Saulius Skvernelis
The LRT Research Division previously announced that L. Savickas, on the orders of Prime Minister S. Skvernelis, had given a direct order to begin purchasing rapid tests in March.
A test, with a total purchase of more than 500 thousand, SAM and NVSPL sifted about 12 euros, while the Ministry of National Defense (KAM) paid just over 3 euros for the same tests, according to the LRT.
Criticism of the work of journalists
Speaking from the Seimas rostrum on Tuesday, Prime Minister S. Skvernelis explained that the Investigation Division of the national broadcaster LRT provided an incomplete picture of the situation.
“I understand that before the elections, no one needs the truth, not justice. But at least one national station with a very important public information mission could have been a little more tired and provide more accurate information to the public. More so because It is not done by any journalist, but by the Department of Journalistic Investigation, ”said the Prime Minister.
“The broadcaster made a mistake in conducting an ‘investigation’ under their code, to put it mildly.” I want to hope to be wrong, both in basic arithmetic and in providing information to the public: incomplete information on the price of rapid tests, signed contracts, suppliers, market prices, requirements for suppliers on rapid tests and delivery times, which is very important , and amounts. “He continued.
The politician assured that SAM and KAM acquired at different times and that they also had different delivery requirements for suppliers.
In some there were more than a month of delivery times, in others it took a week or immediately to do so.
“In some places there were more than a month of delivery times, in others it had to be done within a week or immediately,” said S. Skvernelis.
In addition, it assured that KAM had subsequently concluded two more contracts for the purchase of rapid tests. It is said that the tests were then purchased for 4 euros and about 12 euros in unit cost.
It is said that there is an attempt to politicize the investigation
S. Skvernelis joined the Seimas rostrum after representatives of the opposition factions raised the issue of purchasing rapid evidence. They asked why the Prime Minister had not suspended “the planned, discussed and coordinated purchase of half a million rapid tests at Government House, when the Defense Ministry bought the same tests and a smaller quantity at a price four times less.”
In answering this question, the Prime Minister stated that it was directly related to the upcoming Seimas elections. But this, he said, is a rare case: politicians are trying to politicize pretrial investigations before any election.
We are trying to make this part of the electoral campaign during the elections.
“If the police have any questions, the police will carry out an investigation. The investigation is done, there is no need for the police to intervene, let it run quietly. But again, we are trying to make this issue part of the election campaign during the elections, “said S. Skvernelis.
He also denied the government’s contribution to the purchase of rapid tests, explaining that other institutions did so.
“All the procedures related to rapid tests were carried out by the responsible authorities, the Ministry of Health and the National Laboratory of Public Health, in strict compliance with the public procurement laws in force at that time,” said the prime minister.
The conclusions of the experts made it possible to make such decisions that it is necessary to test, test, test.
Furthermore, he argued that rapid tests were urgently purchased at the time because “the findings of the experts allowed us to make decisions that needed to be tried, tested, proven and as much as possible, and there was not enough of those tests that we could out of a hundred up to date. laboratories to six thousand “.
Although the tested experts then suggested PCR tests to detect COVID-19 instead of rapid tests.
Arrows for the opposition
S. Skvernelis also noted that Aušrinė Armonaitė, the chairman of the Freedom Party, is among the opponents who asked him a question, and his party colleague Redas Laukis has been a suspect in the rapid test investigation.
S. Skvernelis said he did not blame him because there was no court decision.
Sigismund Gedvila / 15min photo / Dawn Armonaitė
“But the fact is, you could ask these questions and he would be happy to answer them,” said the prime minister, addressing A. Armonaitė sitting in the Seimas Hall and assuming that R. Laukys, the company that received the indirect payment for the tests fast sold, he tried financially. Support the Freedom Party in the elections.
After this statement, A. Armonaitė’s laughter rang out in Seimas’s hall, and S. Skvernelis assured that this was only his rhetorical question.
By the way, R. Laukys, who received suspicions, suspended his membership in the Freedom Party.
The prime minister offered to another member of the opposition, the Social Democrat Dovile Šakalienė, to consult Saulius Čaplinskas, director of the Center for Communicable Diseases and AIDS, which participates in the Seimas elections, about rapid tests.
Skvernel also took note of the words of the opposition leader Gabriel Landsbergis: the Conservative said that the history of the purchase of rapid tests and the status of the prime minister’s advisers was unfavorable for Skvernel. The entire campaign for prime minister, according to Landsbergis, would be based on a heroic victory over COVID-19.
“Hostile television offers us a subscription”
“Yes, it is a heroic victory. Not the Prime Minister, SS Skvernelis responded to the Conservative’s deliberations. – This is a victory for the Lithuanian people: of a common public official who had to make those decisions at night, to do it quickly, in an instant. […] to a doctor who did not fear responsibility and applied an experimental treatment with the possible consequences that this treatment could be fatal ”.
It is true, according to the Prime Minister, that this “heroic” story is being crushed.
Every story, a success story, heroic or not, can be, with an apology, squashed with the help of some “shit.”
“But every story, a success story, heroic or not, can be excused with ‘shit’,” he said, emphasizing that “shit” was not his term.
At the end, S. Skvernelis quoted an excerpt from the speech of Vytautas Landsbergis, winner of the Freedom Prize and Speaker of the Supreme-Restorative Council Seimas.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / Saulius Skvernelis
“When it comes to commonly understood ideologies, it is worth remembering an old recipe and an eternal test: a good mix of a kilogram of butter and a kilogram of manure in a clay bowl gives you two kilos of manure. Hostile televisions offer us this baby food. It offers it to everyone, invests a lot ”, quoted S. Skvernelis.
In this speech, Landsbergis recalled the times of the Soviet Union, the influence and current propaganda of Russia. The Prime Minister did not specify what he was referring to in the context of these days and events when he mentioned the manure offered by “hostile televisions”.
By the way, the BNS news agency points out that S.Svvernelis has spent all the time allotted for responses until the last second, the statute of the Seimas provides for 20 minutes, and after the speech the opposition has left the rostrum in protest. Subsequently, at the request of the opposition, a vote was taken on the extension of the answers, but the votes for the ruling did not coincide.
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