As we have already informed , on 2 April, Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction has taken a decision to imprison the Deputy Health Minister Arsen Davtyan for two months.
According to the statement of the National Security Service, factual data had been obtained on the fact that the director of the medical institution had had the goal to ensure the sponsorship of the Deputy Minister coordinating the financing activities provided by the Ministry of Health to the health care institution and to form favorable working conditions with it. On 30 March, 2019, a particularly large amount of money as a bribe was provided to the Deputy Minister of Health in his office with intention to receive support to replenish the organization’s funding gap with the amounts to be allocated under different programs within the framework of redistribution. The handing of the money was performed under the operational control of the NSS employees.
As a chairman of the “Armenian National Health Council”, as a member of the Governing Board of the Anti-Corruption Coalition, as a practitioner and citizen of the Republic of Armenia, Gevorg Grigoryan mentioned in his interview with Iravaban.net mentioned that he condemn any manifestation of corruption: “Particularly when it is related to the health sector because corruption in health care does not affect a group of 10 or 20 people, but affects the health of general population, and in addition affects negatively,” he added.
According to Gevorg Grigoryan, nowadays there is not enough healthy competition in the disclosure of corruption among various state structures. In his opinion, Armenia needs a universal anti-corruption body to so that it is possible to tackle corruption systematically.
“I do not think that sectoral corruption is limited to one case. I have repeatedly stated that there are corruption risks in the area, there are bills and decisions that include corruption risks and what I have said is actually fixed. The position of the Ministry that the state order is distributed fairly for the first time, and so on, turns out to be a lie. In many cases, we see that state order of some clinics is growing, and unfairly diminished for some clinics. At the same time, state-owned clinics’ state orders are diminishing, without taking into account the fact that the hospitals under the Ministry must be strong enough to dictate the costs in the healthcare market and to dictate the quality,” he said.
Gevorg Grigorian also notes that the number of state orders for state hospitals is reduced and the private ones are raised.
“I do not want to break the presumption of innocence, but in fact, according to the actions of the National Security Service, the so-called “kickback” was provided for the state order, about which the Minister has repeatedly stressed, that such activity is not carried out and there is no “kickback”, the state order is fair. Actually all this is a lie,” he says.
In response to the inquiry of Iravaban.net, the Ministry of Health informs:
“Medical and health care organizations are provided with state-guaranteed free and privileged conditions for healthcare services, provided by the order No. 49-N of 17 September, 2005 of the Minister of Health, “On the Procedure for Placing Medical Aid and Assistance of the State Order and Effective Indicators of Management of Medical Institutions Performing State Order.”
Below is the list of state-approved medical institutions:
According to Gevorg Grigoryan, corruption manifestations currently cannot decrees, as nothing has changed in the field of health care from the institutional point of view.
“I have heard from many places that the idea that the salaries of physicians have been raised is not true. Now we have the minister’s statement that the salaries of doctors have been raised in the primary health care level, and many doctors say that their salaries have not been raised and that the state money has been invested under that idea. Where is that money lost? This should also be analyzed and understood if a man says that the salary has been raised, and the recipient says that it has not been raised, it turns out that the provided amount has been lost somewhere in-between.
The salaries of primary health care personnel have been raised for about 15 percent, which was possible through the internal redistribution of the financial means of the polyclinic system.
“I condemn both the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker. Both sides are guilty. If there is no offer, there will be no demand,” Gevorg Grigoryan says and adds that corruption is not just a matter of giving or receiving money – it is a systematic idea.
According to him, currently the corruption manifestations cannot decrease, as nothing has changed in the healthcare system.
“The investigation will reveal, the accusations will be made, the court will give its conclusion, and we will be able to say that this or that figure/official is a bribe taker or corruptionist. This labeling is still too early. But the fact that there is such a conversation, such a phenomenon in the sphere of health care, is impossible to change,” Gevorg Grigoryan said.
