In Three Years, the New Clinical Center Swallowed Half a Million Euros for Twenty Freelancers

Truthmeter checked the proceeds of every person’s account from the Project Unit for Construction of the new Clinical Center in the last three years – the amounts range from 5.500 to 90.000 denars per month. What exactly were these people doing remains unclear, since no announcement about the construction of a new clinical center in Skopje has been made, no was the current one reconstructed, while the one in Stip has been under construction for almost six years. In just three years however, some people have earned as much as 50.000 Euros

 

Author: Meri Jordanovska

 

From the budget-line of the Ministry of Health, almost half a million Euros have been paid to twenty individuals in the period from 2020 to October this year, for building a new Clinical Center project. For that purpose, through Open Finances application, Truthmeter checked the proceeds of every person’s account for these three years – the amounts range from 5.500 to 90.000 denars per month. What exactly were these people doing remains unclear, since no announcement about the construction of a new clinical center in Skopje has been made, no was the current one reconstructed, while the one in Stip has been under construction for almost six years. In just three years however, some people have earned as much as 50.000 Euros from the budget-line of the Ministry – Construction of New Clinical Center Project.

In addition, an Italian company is already demanding 8.5 million Euros from Macedonia as a penalty for failing to build a new Clinical Center in Skopje. The Minister of Health, Bekim Sali, said that a possibility to significantly reduce the amount was looked at.

As Ministry of Health, we are organized with legal experts and we are considering the possibility to reduce the 8.5 million Euros fine for not constructing the new Clinical Center to the Italian company. Of course, that will not be the amount, since the requesting party usually wants all the funds foreseen in their calculation related to the termination of the contract. Those funds are not always paid by the other party – in this case the State. The procedure will continue according to practice and we will probably face arbitration which will take a long time. We do not know when the final outcome will be there, said the Minister in October this year.

But despite this, 17 people still receive money from the Project Unit of the Ministry.

 

Payments were made to individuals from PR agencies, architectural studios and law firms

Truthmeter already wrote about the long story with no end titled “New Clinical Center”. The Center was announced for a long time, on different locations, by different ministers, but apparently, only the payments remained permanent in the implementation of this idea.

According to Truthmeter’s research, – and we checked all natural persons paid in the last three years – 24 people were getting paid by this project unit . Some of them, initially, while  Venko Filipce was the Health Minister, were paid 90.000 denars, but later, with the arrival of Bekim Sali, this amount was reduced to 50.000 denars. They were usually paid 50-60.000 denars and only one person received 5.500 denars per month for three years, which was also the lowest amount paid.

From January 2020 to October 2022, according to our calculations, a total of 458.799 Euros were paid out.

What did these people actually do, when there was no new Clinical Center, was the question addressed to the Ministry of Health. They clarified that they were hired not just for the project “Construction of the New Clinical Center in Stip”, but also for the prefabricated hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as for other infrastructure facilities.

These people are hired for delivering a specific service, not with a employment contract which means the given mount is paid without contributions, unlike regular employment. This is also the case with other project units within other ministries and central government institutions. According to the Government Programme for Health Reforms and Improvement of Working Conditions of Public Health Institutions, as well as increasing the efficiency of the current health facilities, the Ministry of Health within its organizational structure has established a Unit for Coordination and Monitoring of infrastructure projects in all segments of implementation, monitoring and evaluation, said the Ministry of Health to Truthmeter.

Therefore, the engagement of these people within this Unit refers to operational tasks and specialties related to project management, construction works, architecture, mechanical installations, electrical installations, medical equipment and municipal waste management,  finance, legal affairs, public procurement, document management, including administrative support of project activities.

The Ministry said that 17 persons were hired for performing various specialties full-time.

It remains unclear however, why do these people work full-time for the Ministry when we found that some of them have their own law firms, PR agencies, architectural studios, etc.

 

Ministers changed, but the fees remained stable

So far, the names of several persons have already been revealed from those engaged by the Ministry of Health.

Among the more famous names on the “payroll” of the  Ministry of Health were persons already mentioned in the media, such as, Jovan Grpovski, former advisor of the former minister Nikola Todorov. His initial engagement for this Project Unit was worth 150 thousand denars per month, and 90.000 in the last few years. For the period from 2020 to April 2022, when the last payment was made, almost 44 thousand Euros went to Grpovski’s account.

After that Minister Sali replaced Grpovski and his place was taken by Afrim Useini from DUI, who received 90.000 denars per month.

The MP of VMRO-Narodna, Ljupco Balkoski who is an architect by vocation is also on
this list. In 2020 alone, within 7 months, he earned 10.300 Euros from the budget-line of the Ministry. He is no longer engaged by Minister Bekim Sali.

The opposition VMRO-DPMNE also pointed out that the ex-mayor of Centar, Andrej Zernovski, received 60.000 denars per month from the Ministry for a Clinical Centre that is not built.

The editors of Truthmeter decided not to publish all the names of the persons hired by this Project Unit of the Ministry of Health, just those with party arrangements, those active party-members or former elected or appointed officials.

Prizma already reported, that these people were also hired for the construction of the new Clinical Center in Stip. A loan of 97 million Euros was taken from the Council of Europe’s Development Bank for the new Clinical Center in Stip alone, which is under construction for six years now. According to Prizma, 5^th November 2021, the creditor informed Minister Venko Filipche in writing that they refused to finance the project due to slow construction works.

Ever since, with the arrival of the new minister, Bekim Sali, some of these persons had their engagement terminated. But not all of them. As reported by the Ministry of Health, for the current 2022, a total of 8.003.720 denars (130.000 Euros) had been paid to 17 persons. This means that each person received an average of 50 thousand denars per month for this year.

This Project Unit was initially established in 2017 by Minister Nikola Todorov. It continued to work during the time of Arben Taravari, followed by Venko Filipce, and now Minister Bekim Sali. Initially, the project envisaged the construction of a new Clinical Facility, new laboratory unit and adaption and reconstruction of the surgical clinics. The buildings of Cardiology, Children’s Clinic, Oncology, Infectious Diseases Clinic, Gynecology Clinic and Dentistry Clinic were supposed to continue operating, and the Gynecology, Surgery and Oncology clinics would be physically connected with warm corridors leading to the new Clinical Facility and the building with the laboratories.

Not even this was delivered. Only the money for engaging individuals remained the same.

The outflow of these funds would have been understandable and appreciated by the public if the citizens would have witnessed the implementation of the project financed from the central budget, or by creditors. Everything else questions public interest when capital investment projects are concerned versus the earnings of individuals.

 

 

 

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