Millions of euros originally allocated form the eurofunds to the electronification of health care will be used by a different project, Operational Programme for the Informatisation of Society (OPIS). This follows as the Health Ministry must return more than €3.8 million VAT-free back to the Finance Ministry, as it failed to launch a tender for parts of its original project.
“This concerns the National Project of Electronic Health Services,” Health Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Čižmáriková told the TASR newswire November 19. “The former administrations of the Finance Ministry along with the Health Ministry decided to change the original contract regarding the provision of given services. Instead of adopting a transparent approach and re-launching a tender, however, they chose to sign a contract addendum on October 27, 2011. It is this addendum number two that is the source of controversy which can be resolved in only one possible way: returning back the full sum or a 100-percent correction.”
The incumbent administration blames former Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik (Christian Democratic Movement-KDH) for the lapse. Uhliarik rejects any criticism.
“The Health Ministry always proceeded in line with all recommendations made by the Finance Ministry which serves as a controlling body of the eHealth project and, as such, supervises the financing of the project,” he told TASR. “We left the project in a state ready to be launched within a year. Therefore, making excuses and blaming her predecessor after two years in office is nothing but another failure of (Health Minister) Zuzana Zvolenská.”
According to the Finance Ministry, Slovakia won’t lose money from the European Union funds, though.
(Source: TASR, SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
