The coronavirus caught up with the unprepared health institutions that needed disinfectants and protective equipment to protect themselves and the citizens.

At least seven public health institutions have procured masks that have false and invalid quality certificates and are under investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF. The masks were Chinese, and the institutions procured them at a tender. The three Macedonian companies imported, bought and sold the disputed masks of the KN95 type are "Dr. Panovski AD", "Sistina Pharmacy" and "KM Marian". The Drug Agency "MALMED" did not check the quality of the imported protective equipment because they did not have such authority, but they still issued approval for import.

Some of the masks of "Dr. Panovski AD" as well as those of "KM Marjan" received an invalid certificate from the Italian company that did not have a license to issue them. For them, it can not be argued whether they are quality or not, but only that the company that certified them did not have such authority. Sistina Pharmacy imported the masks from Unitex Intl Forwarding, a company registered in China. She sold 1.000 masks to the Health Center Skopje for 312 denars without VAT for one mask.

You can read the whole research story on irl.mk. HERE.