The prosecutor’s office refused to open a case against the director, there is no evidence of a crime

The prosecutor’s office refused to open a case against the director of “Pirogov” due to a lack of evidence of a crime.

In connection with a decision received by the Ministry of Health from the Prosecutor’s Office refusing to institute criminal proceedings, we inform you that:

“The decree on refusal to institute criminal proceedings in relation to the executive director of UMBALSM “N. I. Pirogov” is based on a check of the findings contained in a report of the “Internal Audit” Unit in the Ministry of Health and an inspection report of the State Financial Inspection Agency. The reason for the refusal is the lack of data on a crime,” they write in own message to the media from the Ministry of Health.

This morning, information appeared in the media that the prosecutor’s office has given up on the initiation of pre-trial proceedings in the “Danaya” case.

The timeline of events

In November of last year, the scandal between the management of UMBALSM “N.I. Pirogov” and the Minister of Health in the office “Denkov-Gabriel” Prof. Hristo Hinkov broke out with terrible force. The same announced that “Pirogov” had a loss of over BGN 30 million, followed by a personal explanation of the executive director Dr. Valentin Dimitrov and protest by doctors from the hospital in support of the manager. Prof. Hinkov fired Dr. Dimitrov, but the court stopped the procedure for his release.

We remind you that the inspection of the State Financial Inspection Agency (SFI) at the “N.I. Pirogov” UMBALSM was completed at the end of February this year, with no evidence of crime and corrupt practices found, only administrative violations. The same was requested by the then minister Prof. Hristo Hinkov.

In November last year, Hinkov claimed that an audit report had found financial abuses, violations at the hospital and crimes. For his part, in a report to the parliament, the executive director of the medical facility, Dr. Valentin Dimitrov, suspected former employees of “Pirogov” who moved to work for Prof. Hinkov in the Ministry of Health, who are exerting serious pressure.

In the report in question to the Chairman of the Health Care Commission in the 49th National Assembly, Prof. Kostadin Angelov, Dr. Valentin Dimitrov also named specific persons, namely the minister’s adviser, the head of the office and the director of the directorate. The last two were administrative and economic directors at “Pirogov”, released by the previous management due to suspicions of violations of the Law on Public Procurement.

Prof. Kostadin Angelov suspects political appetites for the “Pirogov” UMBALSM. He recalled that there were a number of cases in which claims from internal audits of the Ministry of Health were not subsequently proven by external auditors.

On April 11, the Acting Minister of Health, Galya Kondeva, revoked the dismissal order of the director of the N.I. Pirogov UMBALSM, Dr. Valentin Dimitrov. The reason: the inspections of the responsible institutions did not establish abuses and corrupt practices that would require a change of the management of the emergency hospital. It has only been confirmed that administrative violations were committed in the awarding of public contracts in the medical facility.

Today, the Prosecutor’s Office decided to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings.