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The Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption (SPAK) announced that it is investigating the former Minister of Health of Albania, Ilir Beqaj, for "abuse of duty".
At the request of the SPAK, the Anti-Corruption Court imposed on Beqja the security measure "obligation to appear" as well as "prohibition of exiting the country". The assignment of security measures for Beqaj is related to the investigation launched by SPAK on January 13, 2020 for the sterilization concession, for which two people have been arrested and six others are being investigated at large.
In the SPAK announcement, it was said that Ilir Beqaj is obliged to appear before the judicial police, once a week, every Friday at 15:30. He has also been ordered not to leave Albania. SPAK imposed these measures on the former Minister of Health a day earlier.
After SPAK's announcement, former minister Beqaj reacted. In a Facebook post, he said his lawyers have suggested he appeal the decision and he will do so.
Beqaj described the accusation as unfounded, but said that he will pursue legal avenues to clear his name.
He also announced that he has offered his resignation from the direction of the State Agency for Strategic Programming and Aid Coordination, to guarantee the integrity of the investigative process and to avoid any possible misinterpretation of my influence as an official in this process.
"I hope this matter is resolved quickly and thoroughly, putting justice and truth above any bias and political attacks," he wrote on Facebook.
In 2020, SPAK registered criminal proceedings for "abuse of duty", "violation of equality of participants in tenders" as well as "passive corruption of high officials". The investigation started after the report made by the "Nisma Thurje" movement for the procedure of awarding a concession "for integrated services for the provision of personalized sets of surgical instruments, the supply of disposable sterile medical material in surgical rooms, as well as the treatment of biological waste and disinfection of surgical rooms".
The 10-year concession contract, worth close to 100 million dollars, was signed in December 2015 and is still being implemented.
The former Deputy Minister of Health, Klodian Rrjepaj, and the businessman Ilir Rrapaj, representative of the company that won the tender to provide the sterilization service, were arrested for the abuses of this contract. Meanwhile, six other people are under investigation under "house arrest" or "compulsion to appear" security measures.
Earlier, Ilir Beqaj defended the sterilization concession as necessary, on the grounds that the sterilization center at the "Mother Teresa" University Hospital Center (QSUT) did not cover the needs of all hospitals in the country.
In August 2023, the Court after setting the security measure for the former deputy minister Rrjepaj and the businessman Rrapaj, and suggested to SPAK to extend the investigations to the former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj, and the former Minister of Finance, Shkëlqim Cani , as well as to the four procurement commissioners.
According to the investigations so far, it has been observed a violation of the equality of competitors in the competition, artificial inflation and multiplication of costs and prices, falsification of documents and statistical figures. It also resulted that the new sterilization center of QSUT has been used by the concessionaire.
Ilir Beqaj was appointed Minister of Health in 2013 and during his four-year term, three concession contracts for health system services were signed. It is about the concession of sterilization, that of 'check up' or analyzes for the basic control of the population, as well as the concession of the hemodialysis service. For all three of these concessions, there have been denunciations from the opposition and civil society representatives for corrupt affairs.
In October of this year, Beqaj became part of the negotiating group for the integration of Albania in the European Union. / REL
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