Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The covid-19 pandemic in Honduras continues to see rising data out of six of seven mobile hospitals bought between March and April in Turkey at a cost of $ 47,500,000.
After the first two cases of covid-19 were confirmed, the state-owned Honduras Strategic Investments (Invest-H) proceeded with an “emergency purchase”, without public tender, between March and April 2020, of seven mobile hospitals, the first two of which were expected to start operating in July.
But of these structures, which only arrived until July, only one is operating, in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in the country, which has a high incidence of cases with the deadly disease.
According to complaints from the National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA) and the Association for a Fairer Society (ASJ), among other sources, in the purchase of the seven mobile hospitals there was corruption.
In addition, in the first two hospitals, that remained several weeks in the National Port Company, of Courteous Port, it was verified that some apparatuses and equipment were used or expired, reason why the Public Ministry initiated an investigation, which is ongoing.
Of the other five hospitals, two arrived in October and the last three in November 2020, but neither is operating, and as for Tegucigalpa, of the two that arrived in July, until this Monday one was delivered for the Invest-H audit board at the Ministry of Health.
According to Gustavo Boquín, one of Invest-H’s auditors, the five mobile hospitals, which will operate in the south, east, west and the Caribbean region of the country, will start operating at the end of February, almost a year after they were purchased.
Several sources agree that the irregular purchase of mobile hospitals is another example of the corruption that continues to prevail in Honduras. EFE