MANS Investigation Center has come into possession of the information that confirm suspicions that the Ministry of Health in 2011 illegally awarded, i.e. by violating tender procedures, a fifteen-year monopoly on the management of hazardous healthcare waste to Podgorica-based company “Ekomedika”, which is a business that already yields annual revenue to this company of almost €1 million.
Hazardous medical waste poses high risk to human health and the environment, and in February 2010 the government of Montenegro adopted the Concessionary study for medical waste management, according to which the amount of the hazardous waste in the Clinical Center of Montenegro, general and specialized hospitals and health centers in the country is 654 tons.
Concession study envisaged the installation of equipment in eight medical institutions in Podgorica, Pljevlja, Niksic, Kotor, Cetinje, Bijelo Polje, Berane and Bar. Tender for concession was launched a month later, i.e. in March 2010, and a future concessionaire was required to invest €2.9 million during the first phase of installing equipment and construction works, and after eight years, an additional sum of €2.7 million.
The best offer was the one made by the consortium “Ekomedika” and the Italian company “OMP Eco“, which had experience in the management of medical waste.
The founder of the company “Ekomedika,” the Slovenian company “Imo rent,” owned by Stane Polanic, has only one employee and does not process the medical waste. Polanic is the founder of the company “Imo real”, in which the Podgorica-based company “Proinvest”, Slovenian company “3R inzenjering” and a few other Slovenian citizens have common ownership.
One of the founders of the company “Proinvest”, with a 50 percent stake, is a Podgorica-based joint-stock company “Industriaimport – Industriaimpex”, where Sreten Djikanovic and Janko Radunovic are majority shareholders, holding about a 67 percent stake in the company. According to data from the Pledge Registry, Djikanovic and Radunovic pledged all the shares they hold in “Industriaimport – Industriaimpex” in Hipotekarna banka.
The company “Industriaimport – Industriaimpex” appears as the founder or co-founder of another 12 companies in Montenegro, including the company “Farmegra”, which every year concludes deals worth millions for the purchase of medicines with the Health Insurance Fund.
In addition, the official tender procedure, documents for granting concessions for the processing of medical waste in 2010, conducted by the Ministry of Health headed by the then Minister Miodrag Radunovic, show that the consortium consisting of “Ekomedika” and “OMP Eco” did not fulfill all the requirements, which is why its tender had to be rejected as inadequate.
As an evidence of participation in the tender, “Ekomedika” submitted an excerpt from the registry of the Statistical Office of Montenegro concerning division of business entities, related to another company’s business, i.e. “Proinvest”. During the period in question, this related company shared the same address with “Ekomedika” at Bulevar Svetog Petra Cetinjskog 1A/VII.
Also, as an evidence of financial capability, the tender required accounting reports and reports on financial positions of the investor or each party of the joint venture, such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets and audit reports for the past year. “Ekomedika” submitted a statement saying that it had been founded in 2010 and that it did not have financial statements, which the Ministry of Health adopted thereby violating the tender rules.
The fifteen-year concession contract was concluded in June 2011 and that same year, “Ekomedika” undertook to put into operation the plants in Podgorica and Berane, and in 2014 the plants in Bar and Niksic, while the realization of the project on other locations will depend on the real needs and cost-efficiency of the concession.
Due to problems in obtaining the necessary permits for work, “Ekomedika” was late with implementation of the contract and the processing of medical waste started only in March 2013, while in 2015 the waste treatment facilities existed only in Podgorica and Berane.
The contract determined the net cost of waste treatment for quantities of up to 654 tons per year to be €1.85 per kilo, but it is not known which parameters were used to determine those prices. It also defined the illegal provision under which “Ekomedika”, in case of amendments to laws or regulations which introduce additional obligations, has the right to ask for the application of more favorable regulations.
Furthermore, although the contract relates to the waste from public health institutions, it defines that the concessionaire for the needs of private health institutions and third parties must provide waste management services and conclude separate agreements with these entities. This provision did not exist in the draft concession contract and was subsequently agreed, and it is obvious that it gives the possibility of additional profit to the concessionaire and allows him a monopoly in the country over the medical waste treatment.
In 2013, according to the Health Insurance Fund, “Ekomedika” processed about 56.8 tons of waste from 12 public health institutions and on that basis earned less than €125,000. In 2014, it processed 351 tons of waste from 30 public health institutions and earned €780,000, while last year it processed 418 tons of waste from 31 public health institutions and earned €920,000.
According to the documentation of MANS Investigation Center, in the middle of last year the Health Insurance Fund asked the Ministry of Health to consider the possibility of decreasing the prices of medical waste treatment in order to reduce expenses. It is not known if something has been done in this regard in the meantime.
When it comes to the concession fee, it is determined to be three percent of the overall revenue. According to the Tax Administration data, obtained by MANS Investigation Centre, from 2011 to May 2015, on the basis of concession fees, “Ekomedika” received only a single payment of €3,700 on 26 December 2014.
The government has recently adopted a Healthcare Waste Management Plan for the period from 2016 to 2020. The document acknowledges that the waste continues to be a major problem, although the concession for its processing was granted five years ago, whereas the actual amount of hazardous medical waste is still not known.
Author: MANS Investigation Centre
This text is created with the support of the European Union within the project “Zero Tolerance to Corruption”. Network for Affirmation of Non-Governmental Sector – MANS is solely responsible for the contents of this article, and the views taken herein shall not in any case be considered as those of the European Union.
