• There are large differences between the 28 COVID centers that were covered by the analysis, both in terms of the number of medical staff engaged, the drugs used to treat the hospitalized patients, the oxygen support provided, the masks used and the number of average days of hospitalization and patient mortality rate;

• Only five COVID centers provided a high level of health services in the analyzed period according to the research indicators, 21 of the centers provided an average level of health services and two provided a low level of health services;

• When conducting public procurement procedures by applying negotiation procedure without prior publication of a contract notice, more companies should be included in the negotiation because the reason for negotiation is the urgency of the procurement and not protection of the exclusive right of certain companies;

• Respect the deadlines for delivery of the procured products, having in mind that the urgency of the procurement justifies the implementation of this negotiation procedure without prior publication of a contract notice;

• Elaborate in detail the reasons for each procurement in the procurement decision in order to justify that the contracting authority could not have foreseen or plan the procurement, did not have time to apply other procedures and that the circumstances of extreme urgency can in no case be attributed to the institution which does the procurement.

The research of the equality of health services delivered in various COVID centers in the country was conducted by the Center for Civil Communications within the project for “Monitoring in corruption-risk areas: health and environment”, supported by the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia

Read the analysis here.