Corruption in Medicine
Procurement: Ukrainian case
Andrei Marusov, head of the board , TI Ukraine
Expert Center for Political Studies & Analysis
journalist
Health and medicines
Top three causes of morbidity in Ukraine:
1. Cardiovascular diseases
2. Nervous system diseases
3. Oncology
Medicines communities most concerned
1.
2.
3.
4.
Anti-cancer drugs
Antiretroviral drugs
Pegylated interferon
Drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis
Top three medicines procured
In terms of costs
Rituximab
Pegaspargase
Pegfilgrastym
In terms of quantity
Vaccines
Paediatric cancer drugs
Anti-hemophilic drugs
Corruption in Ukraine
Evident everywhere
TI Corruption Perception Index – 152nd place out of 183
countries
Corruption in health care: from planning to supplying…
Health Ministry’s response: introduction of reference prices
NGOs’ response: monitoring, uncovering corruption, public
protests…
(Network of PLWH, UCAB, Krona, Anticorruption Center…)
Governance
Corruption: Law on Main Principles to Prevent & Combat
Corruption
Oversight bodies: General Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of
Internal Affairs, State Security Service.
(also – Taxation Police, Customs Service, State Finance
Inspection…)
There is special Law about fighting organized crime
Whistleblower protection: declared in the law about main
principles to prevent corruption…
Governance
Access to Information:
Law about access to public information (2011). Each gov’tal
body has special unit handling information requests; as a
rule, they should answer within 5 days.
In practice, gov’tal bodies do not answer, incomplete answer
etc
Law about public procurement:
Key info must be published on state web portal, including:
• Announcement about the bid
• Bid documentation
• Info about all bidders, their proposals, the winner and its
proposal, why the winner was chosen etc
Access to PP web portal is free of charge!
CS response and opportunities
Two groups of anti-corruption NGOs:
• Lobbying policy changes (like TI Ukraine) (“policy fighters”)
• Monitoring, uncovering, making it public, submitting protests
(“abuses fighters”) (PLWH, UCAB, Anticorruption Action
Center)
Corruption investigations by media – “it is cool”!
Problems:
Just a few “abuses fighters” (PLWH is the leader)
Weak cooperation between NGOs, between NGOs and other
sectors (but there is NGO partnership “For fair procurement”
Promising: coalition of NGOs, media, parliamentarians
(Anticorruption Center)
CS response and opportunities
What CS need to fight better?
• Better work with media
• Better work with international journalists
• Building CS coalitions around the issue
• Creating pool of experts
• Balance between policy analysis and abuse uncovering
And also
• Resources
• Expertise
• Be brave and do not stop!
Media
Situation with media in Ukraine:
• Journalists are beaten, (but) not killed
• Those who beat are not punished
• Journalists are not listened to by authorities
• Strong tendency – to get journalists imprisoned (diffamation
law)
Media is active in uncovering public procurement corruption,
including in health care. There are success stories
Media focus: concrete abuses, bribes, deteriorating health care
system etc
There is a series of training courses on PP, journalist
investigations…