Na Homolce Hospital does not have to pay a three-billion fine, the court ruled
Na Homolce Hospital succeeded in appealing against the three billion fine imposed last year by the Financial Office for the Capital City of Prague for violating budgetary discipline in the years 2011 to 2013, when Vladimír Dbalý, the currently prosecuted director, next to it. According to the office, the hospital had to pay a fine of 2,993 billion crowns, it will pay nothing. The decision is final. The financial directorate in Brno acknowledged the hospital’s arguments and annulled the controversial decision of the tax office.
“We considered the original decision of the Tax Office for the Capital City of Prague to be absurd from the very beginning and we had the support of the Ministry of Health, so we firmly believed that our arguments would convince the appellate office,” said Homolka director Ivan Oliva, who told the hospital. October 2014
“Following the appellate proceedings, in which the Appellate Finance Directorate collected further documents, the payment order was canceled and the proceedings in the matter were suspended,” said the directorate spokesman Jan Odvářka of Czech Radio – Radiožurnál. Hospitals probably no longer have to worry about fines. According to Odvářka, the case would be re-negotiated if new evidence emerged, but it is not possible to use it.
The reason for the sanction was the finding of the inspectors that in those years the hospital purchased medical supplies, aids and medicines through its public subsidiary Holte Medical, ie outside the regime of the Procurement Act. However, according to Oliva, the tax office did not take into account the hospital’s argument that it did not violate the law, because at that time it was covered by the so-called in-house exception under section 18 of the Public Procurement Act.
“This exception allows purchases from one supplier if the in-house supplier, in this case Holte Medical, as, performs a substantial part of its activities for the benefit of the contracting authority, ie Na Homolce Hospital, and at the same time the contracting authority has exclusive property rights in the in-house supplier. rights, “the director explained.
In addition, the opinion of the Tax Office for the Capital City of Prague was in conflict with previous results of the Office for the Protection of Competition’s investigation, according to which the conditions for the use of the in-house exemption were met.
The state will help the hospital
The Minister of Finance Andrej Babiš (YES), under whom the tax authorities fall, promised last November that the government would help Homolka. He mentioned that in other cases in the past, the state released the necessary money from the budget.
Homolka spokeswoman Martina Dostálová added that the hospital continues to liquidate subsidiaries, the procedure was approved by the government. On August 1, a subsidiary of Holte entered into liquidation and a second subsidiary, Holte Medical, enters into liquidation by the end of this year.
According to a previously published audit, Homolka spent 3.4 billion crowns uneconomically. Through Holte Medical, it acquired materials and medicines for 3.35 billion crowns, and the subsidiary’s margin exceeded 295 million crowns.
The court has not yet ruled on the case of the then director of the hospital, Vladimír Dbalý. Seven people are indicted. Six of them had a share in manipulating the contract for the digitization of medical records with a damage of almost 57 million crowns. Two of them also had knives when buying Leksell’s gamma, where they are with other charges.