Supreme Audit Office: irregularities in health ministry's purchase of ventilators

"In relation to the ongoing control, NIK has filed another justified notification regarding suspected crime committed by public officers from the Ministry of Health," the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) informed on Tuesday on Twitter. The Office added the notification pertained to "the purchase of ventilators and has been filed at the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw".

The prosecutor's office told TVN24 it had received the notification and that it would be analysed.

Health Ministry spokesperson Wojciech Andrusiewicz told TVN24 reporter on Tuesday the ministry had not received any official information regarding the notification. "Apart from news in the media and on Twitter we haven't received such information at the ministry. It's quite an unusual procedure for a supervisory body to first announce news on Twitter, while the Ministry of Health receives no information," he said.

Andrusiewicz added that it was NIK's legal duty to inform the minister.

The Supreme Audit Office informed back in April it had notified the prosecutor's office regarding potential two cases of law violation committed by high state officials. NIK added that one case pertained to Janusz Cieszyński, former deputy health minister, and current prime minister's aide and government cybersecurity plenipotentiary.

"Gazeta Wyborcza" found out at the time that NIK's notification did not pertain to the purchase of 1,241 ventilators from E&K company represented by a former arms dealer, but to Chinese JIXI-H-100A devices bought by the Ministry of Health at the beginning of the pandemic from state-owned KGHM corporation. According to "GW", 30 ventilators, purchased for 3.5 million zlotys, turned out to be unusable.

Cieszyński told TVN24 BiS at the time that NIK chief Marian Banaś "has his reasons to take revenge on the government". In his opinion, "NIK approached the case unreliably".

Tvn24.pl has learned the prosecutor's office received "unconfirmed information" about the death of Andrzej I. - owner of a small company dealing in arms - who was supposed to deliver ventilators to Poland during COVID-19. According to unofficial information received by tvn24.pl, said "unconfirmed information" is a death certificate issued in the capital of Albania - Tirana. The body, however, has not been transported to Poland so far.

The arms dealer left Poland without any troubles in late 2020, although he had delivered only 200 out of 1,200 ordered devices. The Ministry of Health is said to have lost around 50 million zlotys on doing business with the man.

Civic Coalition MPs Michał Szczerba and Dariusz Joński said that almost none of the purchased devices had been sent over to hospitals to help treat COVID patients.

Among other things, the ventilators did not have valid servicing and warranty papers and many of them were simply incomplete. What is more, according to NIK reports, the ministry paid at least twice the price for the ventilators. Auditors found out that the devices had been available to purchase for less at the time and from authorised business representatives.