Civil.Ge — The Finance Ministry’s investigations unit said on February 14 it arrested seven officials from the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Protection and eight employees from six insurance firms for misuse of office and misappropriation of state funds.
According to the Finance Ministry’s investigations unit, while the funds were allocated from the state budget, the insurance companies delayed issuing policies for months to beneficiaries in frames of the state-funded healthcare insurance program, which resulted in misappropriation of about GEL 5.78 million.
Arrested employees of the insurance firms were mainly in charge of state-funded projects, including three managers from the company Alpha, as well as deputy chief executive of Imedi-L; managers from GPI Holding, Archimedes Global Georgia, Aldagi BCI, Irao and a former employee of IC Group.
Earlier in February the Georgian state audit agency, Chamber of Control, released a preliminary report according to which absence of “strict state regulation” and “dishonest actions” of insurance companies allowed the latter to enjoy 60% profit margin from the state-funded health insurance project over the past three years.
GPI Holding, member of the Vienna Insurance Group and one of those ten companies involved in the state-funded insurance program, denied allegations saying that state audit agency’s figures were inflated. The company said that its profit margin from the program was about 7.1% in last four years, making net profit of only GEL 5.5 million in 2007-2010.
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