MH Report: Senior Civil Servants Eavesdropped on Government Hospital

Video surveillance and microphones in the hospital rooms and couches in the special department serving the higher state apparatus was established by an inspection team at the Lozenets Hospital (Government Hospital). It was installed by a private company and no one at the hospital had access to the records. There are also no warning signs that patients have been enrolled.

This is the most shocking finding in the report prepared by the inspectors that the BRRD has. The report was prepared in early July this year by a team but was not presented publicly. Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov did not respond to our requests for comment on this report, but provided it after we requested it under the APIA. This discretion can be explained by the scandalous fact of eavesdropping on senior officials without any control and the compromising that may have been accumulated by the former hospital management.

In addition to wiretapping, other drastic violations have been identified. 29 employees were on the state as dead souls without working, including one deceased person. The Executive Director Lyubomir Spasov has received BGN 535,000 DMS for 2020 without a signed contract. The archive of public procurement is kept only on paper, and scandalous contracts for tens of millions are found in the contracts themselves, for which the hospital is indebted to BDB. Suppliers of equipment and consumables for hundreds of millions of levs have established connectivity with the hospital, although it is not clear what exactly it is. Cars purchased from the hospital are used for personal purposes. The cash register maintains a stock of hundreds of thousands of leva, etc.

The listening company sells a soap dispenser for BGN 700.

The company “Medilon” Ltd. is owned by Daniela Ivanova Zhelyazkova and was established back in 1998. For a short time co-owner with a small stake in it was the American company “Dexol”.

The company is established on the market as one of the largest suppliers of consumables for Bulgarian hospitals. Over the years, it has accumulated an impressive amount of public procurement contracts with hospitals – 152m euros. Lv. Over 120 million BGN of the contracts of “Medilon” are with the Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment – Lozenets. According to BRRD sources, the owner was in a privileged relationship with former boss Lyubomir Spasov.

The report describes in detail the unit values of the supplied equipment and materials from “Medilon” Ltd. Prices are shockingly high – soap dispenser for 685 leva. without VAT, sink for BGN 26 272 etc. The inspectors found that in order to win the contracts from this company discriminatory conditions were set, which only it could meet.

On its official website, the company reports that it is engaged in “import and delivery of medical equipment and warranty and post-warranty service of the offered equipment.” It is unclear whether video surveillance and microphones in the beds and couches of those in power are part of medical equipment to monitor the condition of the patients. In all cases, however, the keeping of such records is unlawful and even puts national security at risk, as senior officials may have been recorded sharing sensitive information of an official nature.

BRRD contacted the front office of “Medilon”, but they did not want to comment on the data in the report, nor to connect us with the owner Daniela Zhelyazkova. Until the editorial end of the article, we did not receive a call back from her.

Related Firms and Unprofitable Contracts

Another supplier company of Lozenets Hospital, for which connection with the hospital has been established, is Log-Integra AD. The company is owned by Alexandra Nikolaeva Staneva. She is probably related to Daniela Zhelyazkova, whose name was previously Staneva. The two ladies share the same address in Sofia’s Lyulin district. “Log Integra” has fulfilled public procurement for Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment – Lozenets for over 15 mln. Lv.

Among the major drug suppliers is Bulpharma Ltd. The company belongs to Mihail Tikov and his sons, who own the largest network of private hospitals in Bulgaria. Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment – Lozenets has committed to a five-year contract with Bulpharma, to which it owes another BGN 27 million. According to the examiners, this contract was concluded in case of drastic violations in the tender procedure. Such a public procurement cannot be signed without the knowledge of the Minister of Health, who at that time was Kostadin Angelov.

The probe does not include data on the scandalous transplants of those in power who preceded other waiting for organs, as well as the data on organ trade, which the health ministry previously reported.

So far, it is unclear whether the report, which has reached the Ministry of Health, has been submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office or the State Agency for National Security (DANS) for follow-up and checks on the violations found.

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Разследващата журналистика е разузнаването на гражданите. BIRD се финансира от дарения. Ние не публикуваме реклами. Не получаваме държавни субсидии. Не разчитаме на грантове. Финансирането чрез малки дарения от читатели е гаранция за нашата независимост. Включете се, за да продължим да разкриваме злоупотреби и да държим отговорни властимащите. Използваме Вашите пари за хонорари на журналистите, командировки, изграждане и поддръжка на нашите информационни системи, такси за фирмени и имотни регистри у нас и по света, придобиване на техника и специално оборудване, осигуряване на нашата безопасност и други важни работни мисии. Важно: Ако дарявате всеки месец това ще ни даде възможност да планираме и организираме нашата работа. Благодарим Ви! Нас ни има, защото Вас Ви има!

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