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On Tuesday evening, A. Veryga shared the response of the Advisor to the President for National Security, Darius Kuliešius, to the invitation previously sent by the Ministry to convene the VGT – the document states that in order to convene this format of the meeting of heads of state and national defense.
“The specific procedural documents of the current hiring do not form the basis of the VGT’s agenda,” states the VGT Secretary in response to A. Veryga.
For his part, A. Veryga assures that D. Kuliešius did not even know the documents presented, “because he did not agree to sign the standard declaration of confidentiality established by the European Commission (EC) and did not receive the key to open those documents”.
According to him, this week Lithuania has to decide the allocation of additional funds to the support fund for vaccines, as well as “decide the strategy to buy vaccines as soon as possible”.
“We believe that Lithuania needs to make immediate decisions about the purchase of a coronavirus vaccine, which is directly related to the ability to effectively manage the threat to human health and life, while avoiding serious negative consequences that could potentially affect all areas of the country. ” Veryga.
According to the minister, the decisions are also related to the commitments assumed by the State and the potential risks due to the diversification of the offer and the timely purchase of the vaccine. He emphasizes that the VGT has repeatedly discussed the contracting of the National Defense System, the energy and the transport sector, so that the purchase of vaccines “is certainly not inferior in importance to possible railway projects.”
“After today’s refusal by the advisor to accept the information, it is not very clear how to expect the institutions to focus on this important issue,” he said.
Last week, the government decided to ask the VGT for decisions on joint procurement of Lithuanian and European Union vaccines against coronavirus infection, when there were doubts about the risks involved, as well as the reputation of vaccine developers.
Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis emphasized that the information provided by the special services about the vaccine manufacturer, AstraZeneca, from which the product is to be purchased, is contradictory: allegations of possible bribery of the company, as well as distributed drugs that were not effective. , false prices and incorrect information provided.
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca itself announced last week that it had temporarily suspended clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine because a patient had unexplained ailments.
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