Ilir Rrapaj's testimony before the investigative commission, VOA: He was proud of the sterilizations achieved in Albanian hospitals

In Tirana, the parliamentary investigative commission for public sterilization and check-up services in health heard today as a witness the entrepreneur Ilir Rrapaj on the issue of hospital sterilizations, a concession of 100 million euros for 10 years. He is one of the owners of the companies that won the sterilization concession, which has been sent for trial by SPAK under suspicion of abuse of office, forgery of documents and fraud, along with former health minister Ilir Beqaj and former deputy minister Klodian Rrjepaj. But as our correspondent Ilirian Agolli reports from Tirana, entrepreneur Rrapaj declared that he was proud of the sterilizations achieved in Albanian hospitals according to EU standards.

With the permission of SPAK and with the help of the directorate of prisons, he testified today for a few hours before the parliamentary investigative committee on sterilizations and check-ups, accompanied by his lawyer, entrepreneur Ilir Rrapaj, one of the partners of the merger of the companies that won in the end of 2015 the concession of sterilization of surgical equipment in state hospital structures 9 years ago for 100 million euros.

As the concession of hospital sterilizations is entering its tenth and final year, SPAK has started the case for trial in the Special Court 9 months ago on suspicions of abuse of office, falsification of documents and fraud by the protagonists under the charge, while a special committee of the parliament continues the investigation, listening to the testimonies of the members of this case. While the other 3 national shareholders in the winning Italian companies, Umbro Staccini, Elisabetta Anzanello and Giorgio Tardioli, refused to participate in the commission's meetings, according to chairperson Vokshi.

"After the meeting with Prime Minister Rama, how did you contact, how did you proceed with the minister? What steps did you take and what was your role in relation to further meetings? These meetings were not few, but it turns out that they were numerous until reaching that agreement", Mrs. Vokshi addressed the entrepreneur Rrapaj.

In relation to this 10-year concession, the former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj, is accused by SPAK of abuse of office since March of this year, while the former Deputy Minister of Health Klodian Rrjepaj and entrepreneur Ilir Rrapaj, who was partner with 40 percent of the shares of the company that had won the concession.

Rrjepaj and Rrapaj have been arrested in prison for nearly 15 months, from the middle of August last year for suspected violations in the sterilization PPP procedures, while a group of officials of the commission, which evaluated the offer for the sterilization contract, are under measures easier security.

Mr. Rrapaj declared today that he was proud to be part of such an important process of hospital sterilization according to EU standards.

"On May 9, 2016, Albanian public surgery entered the EU, thanks to the standards it adopted, and I say this with an unparalleled sense of satisfaction and pride," said Mr. Rrapaj.

According to the investigations, it is a matter of inflated figures in the calculations of sterilization costs, which the former minister Beqaj allegedly tolerated and did not intervene to cancel. It is also suspected that Mr. Beqaj did not avoid the conflict of interest that arose from the friendship between his deputy Rrjepaj and the entrepreneur Rrapaj.

Like Mr. Rrapaj, Mr. Beqaj and Mr. Rrjepaj have rejected the accusations. Former minister Beqaj has similarly stated that health reform and especially sterilization as a complex procedure, have raised the hospital service to high professional levels, where many lives have been saved and from which more than half a million citizens have benefited through surgical operations.

However, SPAK seized at the beginning of this year some assets of the entrepreneur Ilir Rrapaj; the package of 40 percent of the shares of the company "Sani Service" Shpk, as well as the company "Investital LLC", registered at the Business Agency in Kosovo, through which Rrapaj became part of the consortium that won the sterilization concession, as well as the properties of his other company "Globalsher", an apartment, 13 vehicles and two bank accounts.

Nearly a decade ago, the sterilization concession was viewed with suspicion and further denounced for the unusual steps being taken, as Rrapaj, without any experience in the field of hospital services, emerged as the main shareholder in the sterilization consortium, having founded in Prishtina his company "Investital LLC", but for years he ran a small construction company in Umbria, Italy. The winning company was handed a state-of-the-art sterilization center, which had not yet been put into operation, although it was built by the government with a loan.

Part of the doubts of the prosecution body is the value of the contract, which is linked to a certain number of surgical operations, increasing the costs for the state budget. VOA