KGB Detains 10 Persons In Charge In Health Ministry And Several Businessmen

Persons in charge from the Ministry of Health are detained for bribery.

KGB officers detained ten persons in charge in the system of the Ministry of Health from Homel, Mahiliou and Hrodna regions, as well as Minsk, for taking bribes. tut.by got this information from the KGB.

On April 18, the chief doctor of the Pinsk Central Hospital Viktar Asachuk was detained red handed at receiving a bribe of 2.8 thousand euros. Later, ten more persons in charge belonging to the healthcare system in Homel, Mahiliou and Hrodna regions, as well as Minsk were detained for bribery. Illegal cash rewards amounted to 400 - 5000 US dollars.

"It has been established that the officials received bribes on a systemic basis for creating the conditions for the "right supplier’s" winning at tender auctions of equipment and reagents for clinical diagnostic laboratories. After successful execution of the transaction, managers of commercial structures passed over illegal compensation – up to 5% of the cost of goods sold, to the officials. The functioning of these schemes led to an increase in the cost of equipment and reagents by 30-70% for hospitals and polyclinics, and in fact – for the budget of the country from which all the purchases were paid," – the ministry informed.

Criminal cases under Art. 430 ("taking bribes") of the Criminal Code of Belarus were instituted against the above-mentioned persons, charges were brought and a measure of restraint was applied in the form of detention.

Bribe-takers from among the functionaries of commercial structures, including Mikalai Ahanesian, the director of the research and production private unitary enterprise Belreemed, were detained in addition to the health system staff under Art. 431 ("bribery") of the Criminal Code of Belarus.

The KGB also confirmed that on April 19, a criminal case was instituted under Part 4 of Art. 210 ("embezzlement by abuse of official powers in an especially large amount") of the Criminal Code of Belarus against the head physician of the Republican Clinical Hospital of Medical Rehabilitation Viktar Maslo.

"The latter organized the theft of funds, which were attributed to the subordinate employees of the administration in the form of bonus payments, in an amount not less than 21 thousand Belarusian rubles," – the ministry explained.

Maslo was detained and charged. The criminal case was forwarded to the Investigative Committee for further investigation.

We remind that on May 17, it was reported that law enforcement agencies started fact checking on purchasing medical equipment for Belarusian polyclinics and hospitals at inflated prices. As journalists managed to find out, in particular, candidate of medical sciences, director of the company Belreemed Mikalai Ahanesian and five heads of large laboratories of the country were detained. The medics are suspected of receiving kickbacks from entrepreneurs for winning tenders for the purchase of equipment by health care institutions.