Head of the EU Delegation, Michael Davenport, rejected the accusations about the corruption and misuse of money within the support and improvement of Serbia’s health system project implementation, and he expressed regret for the “Doctors against corruption” NGO’s bringing of false statements, Fonet reports.
In the letter addressed to the organizers of the round table named “Serbian health care – Reasons for the lowest rank” – Davenport reminded that the investigation conducted on the accusations about the corruption and misuse of funds associated with the Delegation has proven that all the accusations were false.
He expressed regret for the “Doctors against corruption” organization’s members, because they continue bringing false accusations despite the explanation they were given.
Davenport cites in his letter that European Court of Auditors and EU’s European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) have conducted an exhaustive investigation about establishing National Blood Transfusion Service in Serbia, which is funded by the EU, and that they haven’t found irregularities of any kind.
He reminded that the EU Delegation did not participate in Emergency Health Project Reconstruction of 20+1 hospital, which was funded by the The European Investment Bank. The documents concerning alleged abuses within this project were immediately forwarded to the OLAF service, which failed to find evidence on the abuse, while the Delegation enhanced the monitoring measures on the projects similar to this one.
Davenport also wrote that EU did not fund the reconstruction of the Torlak Institute, but the money was provided by the World Bank, and that the EU only did the estimation on the behalf of European Investment Bank, which considered the possibility of financing the development of flu vaccine in this Institute.
I share the opinion that there are some serious issues within the health care system, but neither the Delegation nor the EU can be considered responsible for this situation, Davenport wrote, and he added that the truth is quite the opposite because EU gave a significant contribution to the health care system reform.
