2024-01-23 16:45:13
In the midst of the controversy over the statements of the Minister of Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo – who proposed a tax reform so that “businessmen pay” the deficit of the health system –, this Tuesday it was learned that the entity he directs would have allowed more to expire of 1 million pediatric vaccines worth $70 billion.
This was denounced by the opposition representative Andrés Forero (Democratic Center), who assured that Jaramillo and his team are responsible for the expiration of 1,080,416 pediatric vaccines from the Moderna laboratory. “The incompetence and apathy of the Ministry cost the country $70,000 million and put the lives of children at risk,” he claimed.
According to the complaint, although during the government of Iván Duque a contract was signed for the arrival of pediatric vaccines against Covid-19 from the Moderna laboratory, and even Invima authorized its application for those over six months, supposedly former minister Carolina Corcho “ “delayed his arrival.”
Although the vaccines finally arrived in the country, Forero assured that “they were inexplicably in the Ministry’s warehouse until mid-July, when a resolution was issued to distribute them to territorial entities. “They lost 3.5 months with the risk of expiration in sight.” However, the congressman declared that 33,270 vaccines were sent to Bogotá “just a month and a half from expiring.” A similar situation occurred in Antioquia (61,200 doses) or Bucaramanga, where 3,080 vaccines arrived a month and a half from expiration.
“On November 16, what had to happen happened. After unjustifiably storing the vaccines for 3.5 months in the Ministry and without vaccination campaigns, 90% of the vaccines expired: the report from December 22 showed only 121,484 vaccines applied,” added the representative.
According to Forero, each vaccine costs $16.75, “so by subtracting 121,484 vaccines administered from the 1,201,900 that arrived, $18 million was lost. Assuming an exchange rate of $3,900 per dollar, that implies a figure of $70,000 million.”
The congressman announced that he will put the case in the hands of the Attorney General’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office to investigate possible financial detriment: “This shows that although corruption is morally worse, incompetence can do as much or more damage. Due to ineptitude, the ‘preventive health’ government lost $70 billion in vaccines for children, putting human lives at risk. And that’s how they want to manage the entire system.”
The complaint comes after the controversy unleashed by Minister Jaramillo, who proposed a tax reform to cover the deficit in the health system. “We are going to need more resources. So (the businessmen) don’t screw us and rather help us to carry out a tax reform where instead of us having… like Pastrana did, who made a reform. He gave us the 2nd, then the 4th to pay the banks because they had gone bankrupt. Then Dr. Uribe arrived and nailed us with the war tax,” said the minister.
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