Saturday, 25 August 2012
PM Instructed the Ministry of Health to Implement Specific Measures in the Fight against Shadow Economy
The Government held a consultation on issues related to the healthcare sector, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. “It should be clarified why the economic growth trends in this area dropped 4.4 percent compared to the same period last year, despite the fact that we have implemented significant measures to increase the services and decrease the shadow in the healthcare sector. Specifically, the funding had not been reduced compared to the previous year, and the great insurance package was invested. These important factors contribute to the growth of GDP. I think there can only be one explanation here, the shadow increased. In other words, medical facilities are hiding the true volume of the reports, and we have to carry out inspections in all the hospitals,” said Tigran Sargsyan.
The Head of the Government was surprised by the fact, that there was no monthly monitoring by medical facilities in the Ministry of Health, the Ministry never took measures in the collection of the reports and the necessary figures for the calculation of the gross domestic products were actually missing.
Tigran Sargsyan instructed the Minister of Health Derenik Dumanyan to invest a monitoring system in his department and require appropriate reports from the 466 medical facilities each month.
The meeting was attended by the President of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatryan, who offered the Minister of Health to develop and implement a joint program to fight the shadow economy. As evidence of the shadow in this sector, SRC President stated, that a hospital situated in of the smaller towns of the country provided larger tax revenues than one of the most powerful hospital centers in Yerevan.
At the end of the meeting, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan pointed out that the results of the inspections carried out in the medical facilities will be summarized in September. The Prime Minister urged the Minister of Health Derenik Dumanyan to implement immediate personnel changes in case of any obstacles.
