Coronavirus: MPs ask audit boss to look at procurement of Covid tests

Lawmakers on Thursday asked the auditor-general to prepare and submit a report regarding the procurement procedures used by the government for Covid-19 tests, contracts for which were awarded to private labs with the state covering the cost.

The House watchdog committee also tabled the matter for discussion, once it has the auditor’s report in hand.

Earlier, the Audit Office had said it would be looking into the contracts the health ministry for coronavirus diagnostic testing of 20,000 public and private sector employees, after allegations surfaced about price discrepancies.

The audit office said it was looking to clamp down on profiteering. The health ministry originally set the prices of the tests at €110, based on what the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics charges.

However, “some private laboratories charged their private customers higher prices,” before the contracts were signed with the ministry on April 10.

The auditor-general’s office also said it had received evidence of a health ministry offer dated April 13, which called for the supply of consumables for testing at state hospital labs. The prices listed on the offer showed the consumables cost only €29.

“This also contributed to the fact that the price of €110 (of which theoretically consumables are a large part) is very high,” the office had said in a statement.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.