Ilir Beqaj is the minister who architected and implemented the concession of key health services, dedicating around 400 million euros of Albanian taxpayers’ money over the next 10 years.
The concessions in question are:
Sterilization, worth about 100 million euros.
Laboratories, worth about 130 million euros.
Dialysis, worth about 86 million euros.
General check-up, worth around 100 million euros.
Although the services are different, the scheme is the same. All of the above are services that were offered to Albanian patients by the public hospitals themselves and that, in some cases, were provided through procurement with the justification of increasing the quality of the investment, either by purchasing new equipment or by maintaining the current equipment. The service that was offered to the patient was the same and, in many cases, even better than the one they receive today. The only thing that has changed is the amount of money spent on these services and the address of the procuring and beneficiary institution.
Being a PPP scheme, the hospitals have left the financial game and have become simply servants of the companies that have won the concessions. Payments are made directly from the state budget with the approval of the Ministry and the beneficiaries are private companies, which, with the exception of “Marketing Distribution”, a company specialized in the sale of alcohol and tobacco (which carries out the overall control), are “offshore” companies, whose exact number or names of partners are not known.
In the case of the sterilization concession, the costs for a surgical set increased by almost 80 times. The investments by the company are negligible and the equipment used for sterilization is in most cases the same as that used by the public hospitals themselves.
The cost of sterilization for a surgical set before the concession was 2.4 euros per set. Other countries also have this standard, such as: Turkey around 1 euro, England around 2 pounds, etc. The concession increased the cost of sterilization per set to 190 euros. And the problem did not remain only in the 80-fold increase in cost, but also the abuse that continues by building surgical sets in a way that forces the surgeon to use more than one.
There is also irony in the fact that during a complicated operation, the state today spends more on sterilization than on the monthly salary of a surgeon, who is operating with the same tools as yesterday, when the hospital itself organized the process.
And it doesn’t end there. Being stationed near hospitals, and using hospital equipment, the concessionaires don’t even pay the normal operating costs of their operations.
A report by the Albanian Supreme Audit Office (ALSH) found that in 2018 the Trauma Hospital paid 32 thousand euros more for electricity, an amount spent by the concessionaire that operates within the hospital.
The same arguments apply to the concessions of laboratories, dialysis or general check-ups. Services that the state offered either better, or the same as today but at a much cheaper cost, were concessioned, increasing the burden on Albanian taxpayers.
By analyzing the scheme, we can conclude that the goal was not to improve services, but to manipulate financial procedures, taking hospitals out of the game as procurement actors, concentrating finances in the hands of the ministry and then transferring them to shell companies where God knows who gets what.
Today Ilir Beqaj is in prison, but not on charges of abusing 400 million euros of Albanians, but on charges of squandering 200 thousand euros of European taxpayers. Perhaps SPAK still needs time to tie the strings, follow the money, and provide the necessary evidence for Ilir Beqaj’s serious crimes.
But, in the end, even Al Capone ended up in prison for “tax evasion”, and then never came out again!
Besjan Pesha është një studiues i shkencave politike dhe njohës i mirë i politikës në rajonin e Ballkanit. Ai ka mbaruar Masterin për Shkenca Politike pranë Universitetit të Tiranës dhe ka një eksperiencë të gjatë si aktivist i shoqërisë civile, duke filluar me themelimin e Lëvizjes Mjaft e më pas me themelimin e Nismës Thurje.
Besjani gjithashtu ka një eksperiencë në politikën aktive si edhe në qeverisje ku ka shërbyer në disa pozicione të rëndësishme përgjatë viteve 2007-2013.
Së fundmi ai punon si konsulent politik në rajon dhe gjatë kohës së lirë kontribuon për shteg.org.
