Translated material
I'll say hello
The management of Roszdrav found a new job
Investigators from the Moscow prosecutor's office, as Vremya Novostei learned, yesterday seized documents from the Federal Agency for Health and Social Development (Roszdrav). The event was held as part of a new criminal case concerning violations in the procurement of medical equipment within the framework of the “Health” national project. The prosecutor's office believes that the general director of Roszdrav Vyacheslav Prokhorov (former deputy chairman of the Pension Fund - Ed. ) and his deputy Ruslan Khasanov showed negligence (Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as a result of which this department lost at least 11 million rubles. budget funds.The most notorious recent scandal in the healthcare sector was the arrest in early November of almost the entire leadership of the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund (FFOMS), which, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, took bribes for the distribution of government contracts during the implementation of the program of additional drug provision (DLO) for beneficiaries. However, as it now turns out, this case was only the “apotheosis” of the work of the prosecutor’s office against health officials, which began in the summer. And along the way, several more “medical” cases were initiated. Thus, the current investigation into Roszdrav is already the second. The first criminal case against its leaders - also on negligence - as it turned out, was opened back in October. In addition, since the end of August, as Vremya Novostei learned, another scandalous case has been under investigation - against the first deputy general director of the federal state unitary enterprise Research and Production Association for Medical Immunobiological Preparations Microgen Andrei Semchenko. According to investigators, the management of this state-owned company, which unites more than a dozen pharmaceutical enterprises, “abused their powers in order to extract benefits.” The damage from such actions is estimated by investigators at $12 million.
Investigators arrived at the head office of Roszdrav on Slavyanskaya Square, 4, early yesterday morning and spent the whole day there. They were interested in documents related to the signing of government contracts for the supply of medical equipment to medical institutions in 2005-2006 - competitive documentation for all companies participating in the tender for each lot, originals of government contracts, approval documents for them, work acceptance certificates received from regional divisions of the Ministry of Health and the commercial firms themselves.
As Vremya Novostei learned, the Prosecutor General's Office opened this criminal case on November 9 based on an audit by the Accounts Chamber, and on November 14 it was transferred for investigation to the Moscow prosecutor's office. As they found out, in 2004, Roszdrav held competitive bidding for the supply and installation of equipment to various medical institutions of the Ministry of Health. According to the terms of the agreements, in 2005-2006, the selected companies had to purchase X-ray, ultrasound and ECG machines, laboratory equipment, endoscopes, etc. for hospitals, medical centers and sanatoriums, install them and transfer them for use. In turn, Roszdrav, according to the contract, had to pay for these services. “However,” our source said, “payment should have been staged. For each part of the work - supply, installation and commissioning of medical equipment - money had to be transferred to the companies’ accounts separately.” But, as investigators found out, the agency transferred the money all at once. As a result, having received money in advance, the companies did not fulfill their part of the contract, leaving unassembled boxes of equipment lying in hospital warehouses. According to investigators, the damage from the negligent actions of Roszdrav officials amounted to more than 11 million rubles. The investigation has yet to find out why Messrs. Prokhorov and Khasanov, as curators of this project, were not convinced that the terms of the agreement were met and transferred the money. The investigation also does not exclude that in the future another article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation may appear in the case - 174 (money laundering).
It is worth noting that on October 3 of this year, the Prosecutor General’s Office opened another case of negligence against Roszdrav officials. Then, during a scheduled inspection for the implementation of the national project “Health”, a large batch (almost 65 million rubles) of the drug “Consupren”, used for treatment in human organ transplantation, was discovered with an expired expiration date at the warehouse of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Russian Association “Medtekhsnab” . During the investigation, it turned out that the drug was purchased by Medtekhsnab in December 2002. Although it expired in 2004, it continued to be available in pharmacies. Considering that only on November 20 the Prosecutor General’s Office issued a complaint to the head of Roszdrav in connection with the violation of the requirements of the civil service law in his department, the latest revelations may continue.
However, the Moscow prosecutor’s office, as Vremya Novostei managed to find out, is making much more serious claims against the first deputy general director of the NPO Microgen, Andrei Semchenko. The damage from his actions, according to investigators, amounted to about $12 million. While this case is being investigated for abuse of power, the prosecutor’s office does not rule out that other articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation may appear in it - fraud and money laundering.
This case, as it turned out, was opened on August 28. During the investigation, it was established that in February Microgen won one of the tenders within the framework of the national project “Health”. The company was supposed to manufacture and supply the drug “Hepatitis B recombinant yeast liquid vaccine for children” in the amount of 30 million doses for 10 million children. About 2 billion rubles were allocated for this. ($74 million). To produce a vaccine against infection, as follows from the case materials, Microgen needed to purchase the base of the drug - Shanvac-B (DNA recombinant), supplied in vials in bulk. To achieve this, the company entered into an agreement to purchase recombinant DNA from the Indian manufacturing company Santha Biotechnics Ltd, with which it has been collaborating on an ongoing basis since October 2004. But after concluding a government contract and receiving money, as the investigation established, Microgen did not directly contact its Indian partners, but entered into an agreement with an intermediary company - Hartly Investments Ltd, registered in London. According to investigators, Mr. Semchenko, being responsible for the implementation of this government contract, personally endorsed the contract with a British company, thus purchasing the base for the vaccine at a higher price. For intermediary services, the English company received more than $12 million, which were transferred to the English company’s account in a Latvian bank. Why Microgen needed an intermediary is still being clarified by the investigation.
Mr. Semchenko himself declined to comment. In turn, his lawyer Vladimir Kuznetsov told Vremya Novostei that the city prosecutor’s office unjustifiably opened a criminal case against his client: “It should have been initiated not against a specific person, in this case my client, but based on the fact. After all, as far as I know, the investigation does not and cannot have evidence that Mr. Semchenko received any personal benefit as a result of this transaction.”