Covid-19 tests in Madeira cost more than 15 million euros, but the contract programmed for the execution disrespected the principles of competition and transparency, concluded an audit by the Court of Auditors released today.
In a statement, the Court of Auditors (TdC) states that the contract for the execution of rapid antigenic Covid-19 tests was signed with the Commercial and Industrial Association of Funchal (ACIF) – Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Madeira, but this “did not represent the majority of health service providers in the Region.”
The contract is dated the 18th of June 2021, and the audit states that, after its conclusion, only 17 new entities joined ACIF, joining the existing eight partners.
“The contracting is underlying an error in the formation of the will, insofar as the decision of Iasaúde [Institute of Health Administration of Madeira] was based on an assumption that did not correspond to reality.”
The audit found that more than one million tests were carried out, worth 15.3 million euros, and the principle of competition was “disregarded,” since “only private service providers that were associated with ACIF joined the testing programme.”
In addition, according to the TdC, “objective and clear criteria were not observed and it took time to adapt to the evolution of the market,” and Madeira ended up having to bear close to 800 thousand euros, a cost higher than what would have been paid if the price regime set by the Ministry of Health had been observed.
The TdC adds that “sufficient compliance with the principles of publicity and transparency was not given” and that “the remuneration paid to ACIF was omitted” which ended up having “an excessive margin of autonomy,” and “little preventive position” on the part of Iasaúde.
“In practice, Iasaúde almost entirely delegated the inspection of the quality of the services provided by ACIF” and “did not develop autonomous supervision procedures.”
This evaluation led the TdC to recommend to those responsible for Iasaúde that they improve the justification of administrative options and that “the justification of the prices and services purchased is clear, sufficient and true, promoting respect for transparency, publicity, competition and the strict legality of decisions.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
