Health ministry to monitor hospital directors’ accounts

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is developing mechanisms to monitor the financial accounts of medical center directors, Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan said during a briefing with journalists at the National Assembly.

She was responding to questions about the scandal surrounding the Vedi Medical Center.

Earlier, media outlets reported that the center’s former director, Aramayis Grigoryan, a member of the Civil Contract party, allegedly lost around 140 million drams from the hospital’s budget in a casino. According to reports, he registered doctors with higher salaries but in reality paid them smaller amounts.

“There is a criminal case, and yes, this is a very serious issue. We are now reviewing our overall mechanisms for monitoring the technical, banking and financial flows of our directors. This concerns all hospitals,” Avanesyan said.

Responding to a journalist’s question about whether other hospital directors might also have gambling problems, the minister said such a possibility cannot be ruled out.

“As we have seen, such an ‘impossible’ phenomenon unfortunately did happen,” she added.

According to Avanesyan, the Vedi Medical Center already has an acting director, and the salaries of medical staff have been paid.

The minister also said the current acting director is under the direct supervision of her adviser, and that the ministry is cooperating with law enforcement authorities to recover the funds allegedly misappropriated by the former director.