The police intervened from nighttime especially in the headquarters building of the Regional Health Company, which manages seven hospitals in the Ústí Region, and also in the Jihlava Hospital. She detained, among others, the two directors, Petr Maly and Lukáš Velev.
“In the investigation conducted by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Czech Republic, 36 searches were carried out today and ten suspects were arrested on suspicion of corruption related to public contracts for the provision of medical equipment. The searches were carried out by the National Central Office against Organized Crime in eleven cities, in the homes and offices of the suspects and in the management of two hospitals,” reads the press release of the European prosecutor.
According to him, the general director of the hospital and managers of the contracting authority as well as directors of suppliers of medical technology are among the suspects. “This is a suspected criminal organization that has been active since at least 2022 and was created with the intention of systematically manipulating public contracts for medical supplies for hospitals in favor of predetermined suppliers and in some cases to procure medical equipment without starting a procurement process,” the European prosecutor claims .
Medical equipment included operating tables, equipment for laparoscopic and arthroscopic surgery, endoscopes, defibrillators, surgical drills and ventilators. According to the investigation, predetermined suppliers had the opportunity to participate in the creation of the tender conditions in the public procurement management system even before the public announcement of the tender procedure, in order to tailor the contracts to the preferred suppliers.
According to the prosecutor, the suspects passed confidential information to the preferred suppliers, including the content of bids from competing suppliers and requests for clarification of tender documents. This in some cases allowed preferred suppliers to react to win.
“Based on the evidence, when awarding a public contract to a pre-determined supplier, they would pay a bribe of 10 percent of the contract price to a suspect working for the contracting authority through an intermediary who also acted as the head of an organized crime group,” describes the European prosecutor.
The group allegedly used forged invoices for fictitious services issued by affiliates to cover up the origin of illicit money. According to the findings of the police, the head of the organized group then distributed the cash bribes among the gang members.
The delivery of part of the medical equipment for hospitals was co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development within the program “Aid for the restoration of the cohesion and territory of Europe” (REACT-EU). It is estimated that the investigated activities, which have been documented by the police so far, have caused damage to the European Union in the amount of around one million euros.
But the investigation continues and the damage caused will be much higher, according to the detectives. The suspects face penalties for damaging the financial interests of the EU, fraud in public procurement, active and passive corruption, participation in an organized criminal group and money laundering.
2024-02-19 16:20:00