Health Emergency Operations Center HEOC says the 10 ventilators sent by Dubai’s Executors General Trading company fit the specifications given.
Speaking to ‘The Press’ HEOC said that it had checked whether the 10 sent by the company last week fit the specifications stipulated in the agreement and that it had not noticed any discrepancies yet.
HEOC added that all the ventilators were in good condition and functioned perfectly.
It said that the machines were ready to be used and that authorities were having discussions regarding the remaining 65 ventilators.
The company was awarded a contract to procure 75 ventilators in total.
This comes after the Auditor General’s Office highlighted several irregularities in the transactions completed to acquire the ventilators highlighted in its compliance audit report on COVID-19 response expenditures of the Health Ministry.
The compliance audit report highlighted significant irregularities in the procurement of ventilators. It revealed a total of MVR 30.9 million had been in advance to Executor General Trading (Dubai) for the procurement of 75 ventilators and that to date no ventilator has been delivered to the country.
In the report, the Audit Office said that it found that the party has been selected to procure ventilators without assessing its financial and technical capabilities
The Auditor-General recommended relevant authorities to investigate the bidding and awarding of procurement of Ventilators from local parties, in view of lack of fair and competitive bidding.
