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Vladimir Ivanovo (VŽ) nuotr.
The Attorney General’s Office aims to order companies to pay more than 4 million. for rapid COVID-19 tests.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the contract was awarded for overpayments for undisclosed negotiations, so the objective is to recover the part of the contract value that prosecutors consider unreasonable.
As announced by the Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday, prosecutors from the Public Interest Protection Division filed a lawsuit with the Vilnius Regional Court for the annulment and invalidation of the transactions concluded with regard to the acquisition of rapid COVID-19 EXPRESS tests and for order the state to pay more than EUR 4,142,600.
According to the prosecution, the pre-trial investigation for possible fraud, money laundering, misuse, falsification of documents or possession of a falsified document in connection with the acquisition of rapid COVID-19 tests revealed data on possible harm to the public interest.
Paid more than the market price
According to law enforcement data, the sales contract was concluded after the public procurement was carried out through unannounced negotiations and was concluded in violation of the principle of transparency enshrined in the Public Procurement Law.
It was established that the norm established in the Public Procurement Law that funds destined to the purchase of goods, services or works must be used in a rational manner was also violated during the contracting and execution of the contract.
According to the police, the National Public Health Laboratory and the company signed a contract for 510,000 tests, the value of this contract with VAT is 6 million. EUR.
“Without evaluating the other offers submitted, without looking for a supplier that could provide rapid tests at a competitive price, accepting the offer of the company, the concluded contract may have paid significantly more than the market rates,” the prosecution said.
Estimating that the evidence was purchased roughly three times as expensive as its actual value, public interest prosecutors are asking the court to order the companies to pay more than $ 4 million. EUR.
The pre-trial investigation into the purchase of the COVID-19 rapid tests is ongoing and the anticipated procedural steps are being taken. Currently, six people are under suspicion.
The investigation is carried out by officials of the Special Tasks Board of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service, and is organized and controlled by prosecutors from the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of the Attorney General’s Office and the Third Division of the Attorney General’s Office. the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, no more detailed information is currently provided so as not to jeopardize the ongoing pre-trial investigation.
The accusations are against representatives of the company, a former vice minister
Earlier it was announced that in this investigation, suspicions were raised against the former Deputy Minister of Health Lina Jaruševičienė and representatives of the company Profarma, the head of the company Bona diagnosis Redas Laukis.
Then-Deputy Prime Minister Lukas Savickas and then-Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis’ health advisor Jonas Kairys were questioned as special witnesses in this pre-trial investigation.
The acquisitions were made by the National Public Health Laboratory. The forces of order interviewed those who were in charge of the temporary institution at that time. Vytautas Zimnickas, who ran the laboratory at the time of the contract, passed away in July last year.
Aurelijus Veryga, the then Minister of Health, was also questioned as a witness in the case.
The rapid tests were purchased with special urgency: the purchase contract was signed by the then laboratory management on the same day that it received the offer from Profarma. Within a day, the total amount of 6 million. Amount in euros.
Law enforcement agencies have also previously expressed suspicions that the company may have falsified documents during the conclusion of the contract and provided the buyer with false information about the manufacturer of the rapid tests.
It is suspected that the buyer was possibly misled by failing to conduct a market investigation and by failing to assess the price and market conditions of the goods purchased before concluding the contract. After the contract was concluded, the funds were transferred to the trial provider.
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