Health Minister Filipce terminates tender for laboratory reagents

The Ministry of Health has terminated a tender for the procurement of tests and reagents for biochemical, immunological hematological and gas analyzes, Venko Filipce announced on Monday.

According to the Health Minister, the €35-million tender was suspended after an initial evaluation detected 'some irregularities in the documentation.'

Only one company applied for the tender, said Filipce adding that in the meantime the offer had been thoroughly evaluated.

"In the coming period, we will continue to implement the centralization plan, and by doing so, to allow procurements to in fact make high savings," Minister Filipce told a news conference.

Also, he called on the companies operating in this sphere to 'cut reagent prices, because the market values at the moment are pretty low compared to what is being used now.'

"In the future, we will keep on making efforts to improve the healthcare system, to implement European standards, all in the interest of the citizens," Filipce stressed pledging that the ministry in the future would use the experiences learned from the terminated procedure in order to prevent similar shortcomings from happening again.

The termination of the tender procedure comes amid growing criticism by the public after it emerged that only one company filed a bid that had been established only a few months ago without prior experience in the sphere.