At the plenary session of the Senate on April 22, the first deputy chairman of the Accounts Chamber, Bakhodir Turabov, reported on the findings of study of the effectiveness and efficiency of the project "Improving the healthcare system (Health-3)" in 2012-2019, which was financed, among other things, from the state debt.

According to him, the International Development Association of the World Bank provided (WB IDA) US$ 115.2 million for the project.

One of the goals of the project was to improve the health care system, improve the access to quality medical services at the level of primary health care and district (city) medical associations.

“But as part of the project, due to the fact that the Ministry of Health did not implement a monitoring and control system, as well as the effective use of funds, an inappropriate use of US$ 18.6 million was found,” he said.

He said that when entering into medical equipment supply contracts under the project, a conflict of interest was allowed. As a result, 6 billion soums worth of excessive and unreasonable payments were established.

“As a result, the cost of service was overstated three times, which is why an extra 6 billion soums from the budget were spent. In addition, the inappropriate and ineffective use of 4,126 pieces of equipment worth US$ 12.4 million was found at the local level,” he said.

At the end of February, this issue was also discussed at a joint meeting of the Committee on Budget and Economic Reforms and the Committee on Health Protection of Citizens of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis.

It was noted that the total cost of the Health-3 project was at US$ 254.5 million, of which the WB IDA provided US$ 186 million in loans.

As noted at the meeting, within the framework of the project, 474.3 thousand units of US$ 108.5 million worth of medical diagnostic equipment were purchased for the department of primary medical and preventive care. Also, US$14.4 million were provided for other purposes, such as training of medical personnel, their retraining, technical assistance, and the supply of equipment. As a result, the material and resource base of 172 city and district medical institutions, 39 city central multidisciplinary polyclinics, 180 family polyclinics were improved, and 13 training centers at regional multidisciplinary medical centers, 14 departmental courses were provided with educational equipment and medical textbooks, the statement noted.

At the same time, the deputies criticized the fact that, as a result of the negligence of the responsible representatives of the Ministry of Health, 73 types of equipment worth US$ 19.1 million were in the warehouses, in particular, despite the need during the pandemic, 163 ventilators worth US$ 1.7 million, received in December 2019, was stored in the warehouse until July-November 2020.

In the process of implementing the Health-3 project, the deputies stressed the need to give a legal assessment of each situation in which mistakes and omissions were made.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev told that in 2020 more than 30 billion soums, or US$ 3 million were embezzled in the health care system.