President Bernardo Arévalo, in a press conference this Thursday, provided details about the complaint filed against the former Minister of Health, Public and Social Assistance, Amelia Flores.
Likewise, the Minister of Health, Óscar Cordón, the Attorney General of the Nation, Julio Saavedra and the director of the National Commission against Corruption, Santiago Palomo, were present, who discussed the signing of the contract to acquire the Sputnik vaccines on the table. and the irregularities that it presented.
They point out that the purchase and acquisition of vaccines to combat Covid-19 should be done directly with the manufacturer, which did not happen, since this action was carried out with a third party, specifically with a limited liability company that is not the manufacturer and to that extent, it goes against what the law establishes
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“It was done with opacity and invoking an alleged confidentiality clause, according to a Decree after the signing of the contract that gave the endorsement, that is, at the time the contract was signed on March 30, 2021, that provision “The authority to contract with confidentiality was not in force, thus hiding and avoiding the social audit,” said Saavedra.
As detailed in Decree 1-2021 of the Law for the financing and acquisition of vaccines against the Covid-19 Coronavirus, which came into effect on January 24, 2021, it should be done as follows:
-The acquisition had to be directly with the manufacturer.
-Exempt from compliance with the requirements of the Contracting Law.
-The purchase would be made under strict supervision of the MSPAS authorities.
– Transparency parameters had to be observed.
To that extent, the authorities highlighted that the series of aspects in principle and form served for abusive contracting against the interests of the State. The fraudulent action involves the company Human Vaccine with limited liability and Amelia Flores, former Minister of Health during the Alejandro Giammattei period.
“Which represents a corrupt and opaque contract that did not respond to the needs that prevailed at that time and that must be investigated by the Public Ministry,” explained the attorney.
To this extent, the authorities highlight 11 facts indicated by the possible commission of acts that constitute a crime, the following are:
-It was illegal to sign a contract with an entity that was not a producer of the vaccines.
-It was not confirmed who signed on behalf of the company (LLC Human Vaccine).
– The contract was in English and it is illegal to sign it in a foreign language without a contract in Spanish at the same time. It was later translated.
-Favorable vaccine delivery conditions were not negotiated. All the conditions that were submitted to the MSPAS were accepted as valid.
– It was negotiated that the State of Guatemala, through MSPAS, had to pay royalties for Human Vaccine, which constitutes a crime. Something that the State of Guatemala paid for, but never enjoyed.
-Sanctions for non-compliance that were harmful to the State were negotiated. In the event that Guatemala, through the MSPAS, wanted to claim non-compliance with the entity that was selling the vaccines, it could only demand a maximum compensation of 100 thousand dollars, when the contract had been for 614 million quetzales.
-The regulatory hierarchy and the principle of legality were not respected, superimposing the contract on the Constitution and decree 1-2021.
-The legal precepts were not respected when submitting the contract to arbitration.
-The confidentiality of the contract was not justified.
-It is not known in which country the counterparty to the contract was signed.
-In a complementary agreement, the State was subjected to accepting a vaccine not certified by international organizations.
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