Corruption rocks Belarus health

Authorities have arrested dozens on suspicion of siphoning off millions of dollars in state funding

Amassive corruption scandal has rocked the health service of ex-Soviet Belarus, leading even officials in the country dubbed “Europe’s last dictatorship” to call for an overhaul of the system.

Authorities have arrested dozens of medics, drug company representatives and bureaucrats, on suspicion of siphoning off millions of dollars in state funding.

Valery Vakulchik, head of the powerful KGB state security service, in televised comments last month denounced what he called a vast system of procurement of drugs and medical equipment at inflated prices.

Prices were habitually hiked by up to 60 per cent and in some cases even doubled, he said.

Following his announcement, 37 top health officials were arrested and criminal investigations were opened involving 60 people including local representatives of international pharmaceutical companies.

The KGB chief acknowledged that the Soviet-style bureaucracy in the country bordering the European Union, ruled by strongman Alexander Lukashenko, helped promote the rampant corruption. “The existing system of procuring medical equipment and drugs created conditions for corrupt practices,” he said.

“Bona fide suppliers could not rely on a positive outcome,” he added, while procurements were made not directly from producers but “via numerous middlemen (and) finance companies.”

Those detained in the scandal include deputy health minister Igor Lositsky, doctors at reputed clinics and leading business figures involved in producing and importing medicines.

One of the arrested businessmen is Sergei Shakutin, director of Iskamed group, who is also the brother of one of Lukashenko’s close associates.

Belta state news agency has published photos of searches at the home of a medical centre director that uncovered $500,000 (Dh1,836,250) in cash. Officers also found $620,000 in the garage of the director of a public enterprise that imported medical equipment into the country.

The KGB chief said bribes paid to corrupt officials amounted to many millions of dollars.

“There will be further arrests since the people detained so far are just the perpetrators,” Sergei Satsuk, editor of news site Yezhednevnik, who is familiar with the case, told AFP.

The chief beneficiaries in such schemes were retired law enforcement officials who set up companies to enter the lucrative medical equipment market, Satsuk said. “In 10 years, they drained all the juice out of the country’s medical system,” he said.