The Health Minister Paulo Macedo has admitted that the latest report on fraud within the national health service this year shows that €118 million has been fraudulently spirited away.
The internal investigation unit of the health service has looked into 61 cases and there have been 64 disciplinary procedures involving NHS staff following the uncovering of corrupt practices. Macedo did not say how many had been prosecuted.
The General Inspectorate of the NHS undertook 490 investigations and Infarmed conducted 724 inspections, of which 406 were carried out in pharmacies.
Macedo estimated that "6% of the annual expenditure in the NHS relates to mistakes and corruption."
These worrying figures were announced at a conference on the fight against corruption, with the Minister of Justice announcing that in three years, 100 people have been arrested for crimes related to corruption: eleven for money laundering, 7 for embezzlement and 82 for corruption.
The figures come at a time when the inspector of the Judicial Police, which deals with corruption, claims that a lack of resources is hampering progress.
The Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz announced the recruitment of a further 120 inspectors to combat ‘illicit enrichment.’ however, there will be no money for their payment until January 2015.
Da Cruz announced also that more than 600 judicial officers are to be hired to strengthen the courts and the criminal investigation unit, but their recruitment is held up by the Minister of Finance.
With the black economy booming and corruption and fraud supposedly high on the list of government actions to show the Troika that Portugal means business, these arrest and prosecution figures are depressingly low which, added to the lack of resources allocated to fighting fraud and corruption, is not surrprising.
The welcome high profile corruption cases currently in the media, BES, Duarte Lima, Golden Visas and former PM Sócrates, will not suffice if the government is serious in combatting corruption within its own ranks and in other state departments and local councils.
The Health Minister admits to €6 of every €100 of the health service's budget going missing, an appallingly high figure by any measure. With the country's taxpayers being squeezed from all sides, the government at least could ensure that when it allocates money to tend to the population's health needs, that it is not pinched.
