The consumption of medicines procured by "Montefarm" this year will exceed one hundred million euros, which is about twenty million more than last year, and this public institution claims that only with the announced budget rebalancing, they can provide medicines and medical supplies for citizens until the end of 2022.
"Montefarm" said that they have slightly more than 15 million euros at their disposal by the end of December, but they did not answer how much is currently owed to drug suppliers.
This institution replied to the "News" that from the beginning of the year until September 5, they paid about 75 million euros to suppliers, and invoiced the authorities about 67.
They said that citizens sold prescriptions worth 20.013.962,18 euros in pharmacies, while 38.013.237,93 were spent in public health institutions. That money was invoiced to the Health Insurance Fund (FZO).
"For the period from 1.01. until September 5.09.2022, 76.543.190,74. of the total distributed budget of Montefarm in the amount of 61.308.604,81 euros for this year, 15.235.125,93 has been paid to suppliers so far, and 210.000,00 is available until the end of the year. In addition to the mentioned funds, the FZO paid Montefarma for payment of debt to suppliers, according to the Government's conclusions, EUR 2022 and EUR seven million from budget reserves during 7.366.784,62, while a payment of EUR XNUMX was also made for the debt from the previous period. to the answer of "Montefarma".
Director of the FZO Vuk Kadic he told TV Vijesti at the end of last week that the healthcare system lacks 65 million euros by the end of the year, 30 million of which are intended for "Montefarm" in order to distribute medicines and medical supplies to citizens and institutions... He explained that the minimum missing funds needed by the end of the year.
Kadić confirmed that there was an increase in spending in 2022 and explained that by the end of the year it will amount to around 110 million euros, and he also announced the formation of a commission that will deal with controlling the consumption of medicines and checking whether some health institutions spend them irrationally. .
"Montefarm" announced last month, due to increasingly frequent problems in the procurement and distribution of medicines, that the total debt to them amounts to 72.924.274,56 euros. However, even then they did not provide information on how much they owed to the suppliers at that time.
"According to the Law on Public Procurement and the provisions it prescribes, Montefarm procurement procedures are initiated at the moment when, in addition to the legal requirements, funds are also provided to guarantee payment to all suppliers. The budget funds intended for the procurement of medicines for the needs of the public health system are determined by the Health Insurance Fund and paid to Montefarm, which then pays the due obligations on a monthly basis, depending on how they arrive for collection, which is regulated by signing contracts with first-ranked suppliers. Given that the FZO has been directly dependent on the Ministry of Finance for years, i.e. of the State Treasury, and after the recent abolition of the contribution to health care, the said Institution has absolutely lost its financial independence, therefore it is not able to respond to the claims that Montefarm is demanding at the given moment", they announced at the time from this institution and said that it is precisely in these situations that key issues arise problems.
"Montefarm" pointed out that the subject of public health financing is a multi-year problem, and that debts from previous periods constantly hamper their operations and thus slow down the timely, quantitatively sufficient procurement and distribution of medicines and medical devices, complicate cooperation with suppliers, "and the end result is a dissatisfied and threatened citizen".
According to the data at the time, the FZO owes them 26.867.171,92 euros, public institutions 2.897.051,60, while the debt based on the expansion of the Plan for Public Procurement of Medicines is 43.160.051,04 euros from November 2021.
When asked who they invoiced for 43 million based on the expansion of the Public Procurement Plan, Montefarma said that with the consent of the Ministry of Health, they announced a tender for the procurement of medicines by the end of last year and the first quarter of this year.
"As the promised funds were obviously not included in the budget for 2022 from the previous 42 governments, it is clear from the above data that Montefarm was forced from the allocated budget for 2022 to pay overdue invoices to suppliers, which resulted in the impossibility of announcing the annual tender for the remaining three quarters", it is stated in the answer of "Montefarma".
They said that this led to problems in the procurement and distribution of medicines, which continued after the regular budget tranche of five million and an additional seven from the budget reserve had been paid in the previous days.
Bonus video:
