A NEWLY INFLAMED battle between medicine wholesalers and the Health Ministry is jeopardising an already unstable pharmaceutical supplies situation in Bulgarian hospitals, currently undergoing serious reform.
The country's largest supplier of medicinal drugs, Commercial League - National Pharmacy Centre, urged the Healthcare Minister Slavcho Bogoev to resign on June 2. They accused him of mismanaging the healthcare sector, and poor handling of the huge debts that state-owned hospital owe to the company.
Bogoev claims that the Health Ministry itself owes no money to Commercial League.
Directly contradicting him, the chairman of the company's supervisory board, Tihomir Kamenov, told a news conference that the ministry owes them 4.6 million leva under government procurement contracts. State-owned hospitals owe the company a total of over 18 million leva, including three million leva past maturity, and municipal hospitals owe 2.3 million leva, including 1.3 million overdue.
The call for the resignation of Bogoev was a follow-up on Commercial League's threats of May 11 to suspend supplies to hospitals until they pay up their debts, and start making arrangements to file for the bankruptcy of some of them.
After a meeting with the company management on May 17, Bogoev announced the transfer of 17 million leva to state-owned hospitals across the country, to pay for medicinal supplies. Two days later, the ministry said that all dues to Commercial League had been paid up. The firm denied saying the very same day that the ministry's financial commitment still had not been met.
At the news conference last week, Kamenov said that very few of the debtor hospitals have started making fractional payments on their debts. He added that Bogoev's ministry is encouraging hospitals to terminate their contracts with Commercial League.
Subsequently, on June 1, 23 of the company's offices and storage houses all over the country were raided by over 200 tax inspectors and 100 policemen, in what Kamenov described as an attempt to intimidate the company and force it out of business. So far the inspections have identified no irregularities, he said.
Bogoev continued to claim that nothing is owed to Commercial League, repeating his earlier statements. He told reporters in Parliament that 1.6 million leva had been paid to this supplier ahead of schedule, in view of its financial problems. He also said that the figures mentioned by the company are false because they are for all supplied medicines, and that all supply contracts have deferred payment clauses.
Commercial League controls 42 per cent of the domestic market, according to company information. It was established in 1991 and has since built a nation-wide network of regional branches. It has expanded internationally, with overseas affiliates in Macedonia, the United States and Switzerland. The company is the second Bulgarian medicine wholesaler to run into financial trouble, after the second biggest supplier, Magined, became insolvent earlier this year sending shockwaves across the medicinal market and the healthcare sector in general.
Commenting on the recent spat between Commercial League and the government, analysts said that problems between the state and municipal hospitals, and the wholesalers are only one part of a problem which is much deeper than non payment of outstanding accounts.
This debacle has once again focussed attention on the problematic relations between businesses and government institutions in this sector, resulting in considerable financial losses for the wholesalers and the threat of financially forced hospital closures.
The country's largest supplier of medicinal drugs, Commercial League - National Pharmacy Centre, urged the Healthcare Minister Slavcho Bogoev to resign on June 2. They accused him of mismanaging the healthcare sector, and poor handling of the huge debts that state-owned hospital owe to the company.
Bogoev claims that the Health Ministry itself owes no money to Commercial League.
Directly contradicting him, the chairman of the company's supervisory board, Tihomir Kamenov, told a news conference that the ministry owes them 4.6 million leva under government procurement contracts. State-owned hospitals owe the company a total of over 18 million leva, including three million leva past maturity, and municipal hospitals owe 2.3 million leva, including 1.3 million overdue.
The call for the resignation of Bogoev was a follow-up on Commercial League's threats of May 11 to suspend supplies to hospitals until they pay up their debts, and start making arrangements to file for the bankruptcy of some of them.
After a meeting with the company management on May 17, Bogoev announced the transfer of 17 million leva to state-owned hospitals across the country, to pay for medicinal supplies. Two days later, the ministry said that all dues to Commercial League had been paid up. The firm denied saying the very same day that the ministry's financial commitment still had not been met.
At the news conference last week, Kamenov said that very few of the debtor hospitals have started making fractional payments on their debts. He added that Bogoev's ministry is encouraging hospitals to terminate their contracts with Commercial League.
Subsequently, on June 1, 23 of the company's offices and storage houses all over the country were raided by over 200 tax inspectors and 100 policemen, in what Kamenov described as an attempt to intimidate the company and force it out of business. So far the inspections have identified no irregularities, he said.
Bogoev continued to claim that nothing is owed to Commercial League, repeating his earlier statements. He told reporters in Parliament that 1.6 million leva had been paid to this supplier ahead of schedule, in view of its financial problems. He also said that the figures mentioned by the company are false because they are for all supplied medicines, and that all supply contracts have deferred payment clauses.
Commercial League controls 42 per cent of the domestic market, according to company information. It was established in 1991 and has since built a nation-wide network of regional branches. It has expanded internationally, with overseas affiliates in Macedonia, the United States and Switzerland. The company is the second Bulgarian medicine wholesaler to run into financial trouble, after the second biggest supplier, Magined, became insolvent earlier this year sending shockwaves across the medicinal market and the healthcare sector in general.
Commenting on the recent spat between Commercial League and the government, analysts said that problems between the state and municipal hospitals, and the wholesalers are only one part of a problem which is much deeper than non payment of outstanding accounts.
This debacle has once again focussed attention on the problematic relations between businesses and government institutions in this sector, resulting in considerable financial losses for the wholesalers and the threat of financially forced hospital closures.
