VMRO-DPMNE presented a document today proving that the Healthcare Ministry made a payment of 7.8 million USD to a shell company registered in American Samoa, ostensibly for purchasing Sinopharm vaccines from China.
The company – Stabri – was set up in 2017, shortly after Zaev grabbed power in Macedonia, by businessmen whose identity still hasn’t been revealed. It is obviously a shell company, but Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce tried to insert it in the negotiations with Sinopharm, which prompted the Chinese vaccine manufacturer to withdraw from the deal. Instead of receiving 200,000 doses in late February, as initially planned, when they would have life-savers during the major Third Wave of the epidemic, Macedonia only got the vaccines last week. The price was set at 65 USD per dose.
The payment to Stabri was made. We are not certain whether the company paid the money back, said VMRO leader Hristijan Mickoski during a press briefing.
Party official Antonio Milososki held a press conference in which he announced that the company was planning to sell the vaccines to the Macedonian Healthcare Ministry at double the purchase price.
The Healthcare Ministry officials were trying to arrange kickbacks for themselves, and this delayed the vaccination process by five months. We believe that at least 500 lives of our fellow citizens could have been saved if we acted differently, Milososki said.
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