Scandal erupts, government privatizes healthcare tenders, Salianji raises the alarm and shows how Rama is devouring Albanians’ money through the KAYO scheme.
The greed of abusive profits and plundering monopolies, which are installed by law, does not spare even the sick. The Albanian government has prepared a draft law, which practically transfers all healthcare tenders into private hands, creating a monstrous extralegal monopoly and in complete contradiction with European Union directives.
The Trojan Horse that privatizes healthcare tenders will be a public joint-stock company, which replicates the infamous Kayo model in the health sector in an identical manner. “The state-owned company’s object of activity is to meet the needs of public healthcare institutions for medicines, medical equipment, other health products, goods and support services, in order to guarantee the sustainability of supply, the efficient and economical use of public funds, as well as ensuring the quality and availability of the supplied products,” the draft states. But the devil is in the details. The public company will not supply hospitals with medicines and medical equipment alone, but through the creation of joint companies with private companies. “To achieve its object, the company creates other companies or participates in the capital of other commercial companies, public or private, whose object is the production and/or marketing of medicines, medical equipment, other health products and the performance of activities related to them,” the draft states. So, a joint company between a state-owned joint-stock company and a private person will have the absolute monopoly of purchasing medicines, medical equipment and a large chunk of hundreds of millions of euros of health procurement, just like Timak Defence, which has the exclusivity of supplying the army with vehicles and weapons. Through this mechanism, the government practically eliminates competition in health tenders by de facto privatizing the budget of one of the most vital sectors for general well-being. So now there will be no more tenders where companies compete with each other to lower prices, but all medicines and hospital equipment will be purchased by the public-private monopolist, which will sell them to the state from the position of the sole exclusive seller. Placing healthcare under the control of a private monopoly is madness in complete contradiction, not only with the domestic legal framework, but also with European Union directives, precisely at a time when the government is trumpeting the opening and closing of chapters. Cambridge professor Evis Sala and her boss should explain to Albanians from which European Union country they took this model and which EU government has dared to privatize the public healthcare budget.
“Kapitali.al” consulted the legislation of EU countries and none of them has a similar model. This model has been used in two or three cases in third world countries, including in one of the republics of the former Soviet Union. But even the latter abolished it due to major abuses. Now the Albanian government intends to impose a monopoly on Albanians only so that the pre-selected client transfers to their private accounts the money that should have been used to treat the sick. If this draft passes, years later Albanians will discover other castles in Europe, this time bought with the money of the sick who are in public hospitals. This is a movie that Albanians have seen and will probably see again. Unfortunately for them, those who should have been treated at Hospital 5 are in the highest decision-making positions.
Salianji reacts
Meanwhile, former Democratic Party MP Ervin Salianji yesterday leveled accusations against the government and Prime Minister Edi Rama regarding health tenders, denouncing that the majority is preparing a law that will transfer the tenders of this sector to a single structure. Through a reaction on social networks, Salianji has described this as a “KAYO 2 in health”, referring to the state-owned company KAYO, created to produce military equipment, while accusing the government of shifting control of public funds to “a handful of clients”. “Is Roni taking full control of every penny of health?”, writes Salianji, referring to Israeli businessman Ron Yeffet, shareholder of the state-owned company “KAYO”. He stated that Albanian citizens pay taxes for functional hospitals, medicines and quality service, not for schemes that, according to him, are made for favoritism and corrupt enrichment. “KAYO 2 in health, the government is privatizing tenders!
Is Roni taking full control of every penny of healthcare? Rama is preparing to legally leave tenders for the entire healthcare sector in a single hand, while the state gives up and private companies created by the superstructure similar to KAYO take control. The Rama government hates citizens and is no longer governing for them, but to enrich a handful of clients. Now even healthcare funds are turning into a business to favor select clientele, affecting the most sensitive sector: people’s health and lives. After failing to build a decent public system, after every concession of these years ended in SPAK for abuses of millions of euros, he is now choosing to hand over healthcare in pieces and by moving public money where it is politically convenient, to his Ronis! Albanians pay taxes to have functioning hospitals, medicines and quality service, not to finance schemes that are clearly made for favoritism and corrupt enrichment. “Healthcare is not the property of Edi Rama, it is the right of citizens. Every decision that affects billions of lek of taxpayers must respond to the interests of patients, not the interests of the government that seeks to enrich itself at the expense of the health of Albanians,” Salinaji wrote yesterday.
