Sentences of up to nine years in prison have been handed out in the Remédio Santo investigation into theft and fraud within Portugal's National Health Service.
A total of 13 convictions have been secured by the prosecutors with three suspended sentences for to those who successfully fiddled the system for years to their own financial advantage.
The court heard of the existence of a criminal association with members in the north, central and south of the country who conspired to carry out a scheme to defrauded the state of more than €3 million.
Of the 18 defendants there were six doctors, two pharmacists, seven sales representatives, a beautician, a Brazilian businessman and rather curiously, a bread vendor.
Three of the defendants received suspended sentences of five years and two were acquitted of all crimes in a fraud that started at least in 2009, maybe earlier, and involved complicit doctors writing out prescriptions to supposed NHS users for expensive prescription drugs that were immediately sold on.
With the illicit paperwork the defendants bought medicines in several pharmacies where they only had to pay part of the total price, with the state later paying the balance to the pharmacies.
The drugs obtained were then resold internationally, particularly in Germany and Angola, with the profits later distributed among those involved in the scam.
In early December the Health Minister Paulo Macedo admitted that the latest report on fraud within Portugal’s NHS showed that €118 million has been fraudulently spirited away this year alone.
Macedo estimated that "6% of the annual expenditure in the NHS relates to mistakes and corruption," or €6 in every €100 allocated to the health service.
The successful conclusion to the Remédio Santo investigation should send a strong message to those considering stealing from the health service, funded by the nation's taxpayers.
Comments
If this fraud has been going on since 2009 (and possibly a lot longer) at €118m a year, we are thinking of €700m. Which makes €3m look very small beer indeed. So this case is not so much a triumph, as an indication at exactly how poor they have been in apprehending fraudsters. I would also suggest that if Macedo is prepared to admit to €118m, then the true figure is likely to be much higher.
This, over the centuries, has always been a grey area in Portugal. Then add in the depressing familiarity of these frauds ... constantly showing the 'lack of Portuguese moral fibre' and poor management.
It is interesting that convictions were reached as, being Portugal, nothing is straight forward.
One Portuguese told us of his sister, a manager in one of a chain of Lisbon pharmacies having to sign off on deliveries that never reached the shops shelves. The owner stating clearly that if she did not sign for the deliveries (and therefore be responsible for any wrongdoing) ... her replacement would.
And asking a junior to re-check the delivery would have just cost both of them their jobs.
How can Portugal move on towards the light ? Just telling youngsters to 'behave' is meaningless if their family and friends - and therefore role models - are all up to scams.
A good start would be publicly outlawing the 'turning over of a Brit'. Beginning to see it as a crime not a sport.