VMRO-DPMNE warns that Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce is preparing a dubious procurement of mechanical respirators from Brazil, which are significantly lower.

Macedonia and other Balkan countries are banned from procuring the highly sought after devices in the European Union and have been forced to turn toward China and South America. Filipce today said that the Government has received an offer to purchase 200 devices from Brazil, but that they are blocked and that efforts are being made to allow the sale to go forward. “The good news is that we received confirmation from China that they have 200 respirators reserved for us”, he added.

But VMRO-DPMNE spokesman Dimitar Arsovski said that the Ministry received four competing offers for respirators, coming from Germany and the United States, and that two other offers were more affordable.

It’s not true that Brazil is the only country that can offer such devices. Here are the other bids, four in total. Filipce said that he is already negotiating with the company even though the bidding procedure is not completed yet. He is moving forward with an offer worth 24.800 USD and is disregarding offers that are 7.000 USD lower. This is a criminal act – favoring a more expensive offer, Arsovski said, accusing Filipce of profiteering.