Unprepared and overpriced, Slovakia’s pandemic response criticised by audit office [Advocacy Lab Content]

The Slovak Supreme Audit Office has compiled an analysis of the pandemic, highlighting failings in the Slovak health system’s pre-pandemic preparedness and pandemic management.

The Slovak Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) has conducted five major audits and produced three analytical reports focusing on the pandemic response, ensuring that the lessons learned are used to improve future preparedness.

“It is not possible to go through crises without conducting a comprehensive analysis of the actions and behaviours of all involved parties after the crisis has ended. This is not done merely to look back at the past, but to adjust legislation and the crisis management system for the future,” NKÚ spokesperson Daniela Bolech Dobáková told Euractiv.

The Covid-19 pandemic claimed over 21,000 lives directly in Slovakia. In 2021, Slovakia, alongside Bulgaria, experienced the most significant drop in life expectancy in the EU and the fifth worst excess mortality linked to Covid-19.

The report touches on the procurement of medical equipment, stockpiling, pandemic impacts on education, and financial support of citizens, villages, and research facilities.

According to the report, the audit revealed conceptual, procedural, and legislative shortcomings in the infectious disease protection system, while the system lacked databases for data collection and analysis.

Why now?

“National auditors did not engage in this audit activity earlier because they wanted to have final, not partial, information. Based on this analytical output, we will decide whether it will be necessary to conduct an in-depth examination through an audit action or if the conclusions derived from this analytical activity will be sufficient,” Bolech Dobáková added.

The summary report is one of the few published analyses on the pandemic management. Euractiv inquired whether the Supreme Audit Office coordinates with MP Kotlár’s separate pandemic probe since, based on the limited information provided, MP Kotlár seems to focus on similar aspects of the pandemic.

“The topic is analysed exclusively under the direction of NKÚ. The office primarily communicates with the Ministry of Health and works with officially completed and settled data,” she said.

His investigation progress and results remain unknown.

Absent stockpiling, expensive procurement

The audit criticises the under-preparedness of the Administration of State Material Reserves, which ensures critical material is stockpiled in cases of emergency.

From 2008 to 2020, no crisis management authority in Slovakia identified the need to supplement emergency reserves with selected medical supplies. So, when the first pandemic wave hit, the state material reserves were insufficient. Additionally, as of 15 September 2020, medical supplies in the State Material Reserves were only at 16%. 

Another reported issue arose from medical equipment procurement: “Purchases made indicated excessive overpricing of various medical supplies, especially surgical masks, shoe covers, protective suits, gloves, and goggles.”

According to the office, in some instances, an eightfold overpricing of mask procurement was recorded.

“The Supreme Audit Office does not have information on whether personal responsibility has been established. The office makes recommendations to the relevant authorities, and they must determine whether there are legal options against those responsible,” Bolech Dobáková explained.

Millions of unused vaccines

The Supreme Audit Office highlights vaccine procurement as a major issue. They noted that although Slovakia did not need to purchase any doses of the vaccines in 2022, it still received an additional 5.8 million doses. Public funds amounting to 151 million euros were spent on the procurement of these unused vaccines.

By the end of 2022, Slovakia had more than 6.1 million doses of vaccines in stock.

When asked about the possibility of donating the vaccines, Bolech Dobáková said: “The issue of donating vaccines is now a matter of the past. There was interest in vaccines when the pandemic was not yet completely over. We managed to donate some of them– this is a fact, and we have not evaluated if it was the right or wrong decision.”

“Currently, there is no interest in vaccines, and therefore, the idea of donating the ones we still have in stock is more philosophical than practical,” she added. 

The pandemic management topic remains a widely discussed issue in Slovakia, and NKÚ expects to continue evaluating different aspects to improve the system for future crises.

“At the moment, we cannot clearly state whether anything has systematically changed based on our series of audits, focused on managing extraordinary and emergencies during the pandemic, as new measures are continuously being adopted this year. At the same time, it is very likely that we will revisit this through follow-up audits in the future to verify what has been implemented,” said Dobáková.

[By Filip Áč, Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab]

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