The Institute of Alternatives (IA) sent the Parliamentary Committees for Economy, Finance and Budget and Health, Labor and Social Welfare an initiative for a joint hearing on the topic of public procurement in health care.
IA announced that today, at the session of the Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget, the president of that parliamentary body, Mirsad Nurković, introduced the members of the Committee to this initiative.
It is stated that the President of the Committee for Health, Labor and Social Welfare, Dražen Petrić, pointed out that he will agree on the details of organizing the hearing in his communication with Nurković.
"The goal of the hearing is to obtain more information from all relevant actors, especially in light of the allegations about the senselessness of the procedure for public procurement of medicines due to the limited number of bidders in Montenegro," the announcement says.
The IA said that the immediate reason for the hearing is, among other things, the fact that, according to media reports, there are 906 branded medicines on the basic, supplementary and special regime list of medicines, which are paid for by the Health Fund (FZO).
As they said, "Glosarij", with its daughter companies "Glosarij CD" and "Medica", is allegedly the representative or authorized distributor for even 92 percent of those medicines.
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The IA recalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest report for Montenegro pointed out some of the problems in this area, i.e. that it is necessary to improve the efficiency of spending in the health sector, as well as that it is important to limit pharmaceutical expenditures, which have reached 2,5 percent of GDP in 2022.
The non-governmental organization said that more than a decade ago, a joint consultative hearing of those committees was held, but that, unfortunately, there was no conclusion, that is, a joint report with recommendations for solving the problem.
"The IA urges that the hearing be organized with quality preparation that will allow for the articulation of clear recommendations for changing policies, regulations and practices in this area," the IA said.
From that NGO, they added that they are at the disposal of MPs and the services of the Assembly in terms of data on budget spending and concluded procurement contracts.
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