In an interview with Calcalist, the company’s CEO, Shanir Zeno, sounded furious at the Ministry of Health, claiming that he ordered advanced technologies from the company, and finally retracted: “We don’t believe the Ministry of Health. They delayed us for many months, and then moved our development. We as a body simply do not believe in the State of Israel. Moreover, we received enormous damage in the section of the National Highway, and we suffered damage of tens of millions. I lost 14 million shekels because of the retention of the workers. We are now laying off hundreds of workers and I am heartbroken, but the state ran us away from here.”
But besides these complaints, Zeno chooses not to mention the profits the company made in the two years of the Corona crisis. By the way, to date the attempts to find out how much money the state transferred to the Corona companies, and what their profit was, have not been successful. Neither the companies nor the state are interested in this.
“Calcalist” asked Zeno to produce the invitation documents, or at least a statement of intent from the Ministry of Health or the Israel Defense Forces that they indeed intend to purchase the technologies in question, but these were not received. What was received was a letter of complaint dated June 28, according to which six meetings were held with Ministry of Health personnel around a certain technology that was eventually purchased from a competing company.
“The company warned the Ministry of Health that it could not lose millions of shekels a month on the maintenance of laboratory workers who do not perform tests and asked to release workers. The Corona Authority contacted and held talks to ‘maintain laboratory capacity’. Finally, the Corona Task Force agreed to the model that leaves a quarter of the employees, and also approved it from the day the Treasury approved, meaning the company was supposed to pay months of salaries without work during which the Corona Task Force spoke with the company,” Aid Genomics explains.
The question is whether it was necessary to allow 400 workers. There is a reasonable basis to assume that a Singaporean and international owned company knows how to do the calculations and also explain to each customer that if it is not financially viable, the company will give up the pleasure. Of course, it is also possible to miss in the calculations, but not on the order of 400 employees. If the company left so many employees, it means that there was still economic viability for the activity.
“The combination of political instability and unprofessional decisions together with a consistent lack of preference for Israeli companies in tenders led to the decision to stop all R&D activity and shell activity, and to leave in Israel only activity sufficient for past obligations,” the company concluded.
According to the last part of the company’s response, the decision to eliminate the R&D activity in Israel is related to Corona. It is clear that Zino and the company are disappointed with the conduct of the Ministry of Health and the National Security Council, but we must not forget: the essence of entrepreneurial activity is taking financial risks.
And who are those 400 employees? At the beginning it was said that they earn about 40-30 thousand shekels a month and they have master’s and master’s degrees. But as you know, not every laboratory worker has a master’s or master’s degree. It turns out that Zeno’s intention was that among those fired there are also those with advanced degrees who earn such sums.
Apart from that, according to Dr. Yotam Shanhar, the director of Laomit’s laboratories, there is still a severe shortage of laboratory workers, and in his estimation the health care system (funds together with hospitals and institutes) needs about 200 laboratory workers at the very least. By the way, Shanhar believes that the wage environment of those employees does not come close to the one specified by the company. Ester Edmon, chairperson of the Laboratorium Workers’ Union in the General Histadrut, also believes that there is no recruitment – there are advertisers and no candidates.” And let’s not forget that there are still 155,000 vacancies in the economy.
Sources in the “corona industry” are a bit disturbed by the headlines and Zino’s statements and explain that in the case of a new variant that would require tests in Israel – there would be no one to decipher them. And yet, an open question still remains: Who promised what to AID and did not keep it? Is this promise Only the imagination of AID people?
The information headquarters for the fight against Corona reported: “aid company is one of a number of private laboratories, which won a tender for PCR testing of the Ministry of Health. As a result of this tender, the company’s laboratory receives ongoing tests for over a year and a half worth more than NIS 180 million.
“In addition, and out of a desire to ensure the sampling activity in the laboratories over time, even on days when there will be a decrease in the scope of tests, the Ministry of Health established a model for maintaining capacity for laboratories that allows a base payment to the private laboratories in order to preserve the employment of professional personnel in order to maintain emergency preparedness.
“Regarding the issue of the tests in Benghazi: the company is not a direct supplier of the Ministry of Health in this matter, but rather a supplier of the franchise company for testing in Benghazi. The decision to stop sampling in Benghazi was made in the course of an ongoing examination of the decrease in the scope and severity of morbidity, and out of a desire to make it easier for the public And similar to what is happening all over the world.
“Professional officials in the Ministry of Health meet from time to time with suppliers and concessionaires in the field, but the decision to promote one technology or another activity is made in accordance with the law on the obligation of tenders and the rules of proper administration, and not in any alternative way. The Ministry of Health issues relevant tenders for the various laboratories, and the aid company, for all the laboratories , may enter these tenders. For the avoidance of doubt, we will clarify that the Ministry of Health is not responsible for the commercial decisions of a private company.”