Institute alternative addressed the presidents of the Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget and Committee on Health, Labor and Social Welfare with an initiative for conducting a joint consultative hearing on public procurement in the health sector. The aim of the hearing would be to find the best legal solutions and practices in order to solve the current public procurement crisis in this sector.
Public procurements in the health sector within the last and this year had numerous problems: the case of insulin supply as well as the past year’s procurement of other medicines and medical supplies, which are accompanied by non-compliance with legal deadlines for appeal, canceling of the tender procedure, several months long procedure that caused shortages of medicines, decision of the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement decision being annulled, etc.
These facts indicate the need for a more precise regulation and a better institutional set up in the public procurement system. The fact that about fifty million euro per year is being spent for public procurement in the health sector and that the ultimate beneficiaries of these procurements are the patients, only emphasizes the importance of this issue.
As a society, we are obliged to provide minimum treatment requirements during the year. We must prevent people in need to be victims of the legal inconsistencies, incompetence, corruption and bureaucracy. It is necessary to prevent the shortage of medicines to repeat in 2014.
The Parliament of Montenegro must contribute to solving the current public procurement crisis in the health sector (purchase of medicines, medical supplies and equipment). Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget along with the Committee on Health, Labor and Social Welfare (as committees assigned for procurement and health care) must find a proper solution for overcoming problems in this area.
