The processes of collecting and spending the funds intended for dealing with the pandemic of Covid -19 are non-transparent, and the little available information is confusing, according to the research conducted by the association “ESE”.
They point out that the Ministry of Health collects financial donations on three accounts, but that there is no account of where the funds are provided and how they are spent.
“Additionally, the Ministry receives material donations for which there is no information on who, in what quantity and value provided them, as well as in what way they are distributed in the public system.
Information that is publicly available is confusing, incomplete and unclear. As of May 6, 2020, 2.9 million euros were collected in the account for support for dealing with the coronavirus of the Ministry of Health, and according to the information published by a Macedonian media on April 8, 2020, the Ministry of Health provided 67.7 million euros in the form of donations and grants,” reads the statement.
The association says that there is no data on how the Support Fund established by the Government for dealing with the crisis caused by Covid-19 works, i.e. how much money has been collected and spent.
“Interventional procurement and the vagueness of information on the implementation of urgent procurement call into question the justification and economy of these procedures, and the Government of RNM makes it non-transparent. Large quantities of protective equipment are continuously procured. In the meantime, the Government of RNM receives continuous donations of such equipment from various donors, and in the country almost a quarter of the patients from Covid -19 are health workers and a quarter of them are sick in healthcare institutions. These results lead to several questions, namely: whether the Government of RNM has made an assessment of the needs for protective equipment and whether the distribution of protective equipment meets the real needs,” said the ESE.
The state of emergency and the Government, according to ESE, have enabled the public institutions to independently, urgently and non-transparently redistribute 70 percent of the funds in their budgets.
