Page 46 - BNE_magazine_06_2020 Growers

46 I Southeast Europe bne June 2020
Rushed PPE procurement leads to rash of corruption scandals
bne IntelliNews
The pressure to secure urgently supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and other equipment for hospitals, often under speeded-up procedures, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spreads has opened up new opportunities for corruption.
A series of scandals have already broken in Southeast and East European countries Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine, and more are likely to follow.
In Slovenia, Economy Minister Zdravko Pocivalsek and other officials from
the ministry have been accused of interfering in the procurement of PPE during the pandemic.
Ivan Gale, a senior employee of the Commodities and Reserves Agency, said in a TV show broadcast by RTV Slovenia that Pocivalsek had personally intervened in favour of an €8mn ventilator contract with the company
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Geneplanet, news agency STA reported. €8mn is equal to 150% of the company’s 2018 income in Slovenia.
A recording of a phone call between Pocivalsek and a representative of the agency was played on the programme, in which the minister provided guidance on how the contract should be handled. Pocivalsek has denied any wrongdoing.
After Gale’s revelations, criminal investigators visited the premises of RTV Slovenia to search for documentation and recorded tapes.
The deal with Geneplanet was just one of numerous agreements worth around €80mn in total signed by the government at the end of March that bypassed
open tender procedures, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said in early April.
Meanwhile, reporters from OCCRP’s Slovenia Centre for Investigative
Reporting (Ostro) discovered that the largest of these deals, decided in an opaque one-day bid, benefits a powerful local businessman, Joc Pececnik, who
is involved in the gambling, electronics and real estate businesses, but with no previous involvement in healthcare.
According to OCCRP, Slovenia’s government signed a €25.4mn deal with Public Digital Infrastructure company on March 26 to provide protective equipment for coronavirus (COVID-19). The firm is wholly owned by Dutch company Elektroncek Group, controlled by Pececnik, one of the richest men in Slovenia.
Transparency International (TI) Slovenia has urged the authorities to examine the procedures, set up a viable procurement system for crisis situations, as well as to protect whistleblowers. The revelations “raise so many doubts about the expediency and correctness of the use of public funds that it is necessary to