Ex-Minister Is In Soup Over Allegedly Over-Pricing Ventilators

An ex-minister has landed himself in soup for trying to take advantage of the country, by overpricing ventilators needed in containing the coronavirus pandemic.

He has now been remanded in custody, the Bolivian attorney general said on Sunday.

Marcelo Navajas was fired after he was arrested on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the purchase of 179 ventilators from a Spanish company for almost $5 million, around two and a half times their advertised price.

Attorney General Ruddy Terrazas told journalists that a judge had remanded Navajas and three other health ministry officials in “pre-trial detention” following a hearing that lasted 12 hours and ended in the early hours of Sunday.

Navajas is to be held for three months and the other officials for six months. The Bolivia judge also placed two more officials under house arrest for over-pricing the ventilators.

 The scandal came to light at the end of last week when intensive care doctors in Bolivia complained that the ventilators were not suitable for Bolivian intensive care units.

It then was learned that they were bought at grossly inflated prices, with a Spanish company acting as an intermediary.

 Letters between Navajas and the Spanish company showed that the former minister “authorized this process,” said Terrazas. Navajas’s lawyer claimed the fired health minister was suffering from a serious heart condition and that pre-trial detention would pose a risk to his life.

The case comes as coronavirus cases and deaths have surged in Bolivia, to 5,900 and 240 respectively.

Last March, Bolivia had tightened restrictions already in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Interim President Jeanine Anez said a state of public health emergency would extend Bolivia’s border closure to April 15, two weeks beyond the previous date.

 Anez said no one will be allowed to enter or leave the country during that time.  However, she reportedly has said there may be exceptions under special circumstances.

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Anez says the declaration was also necessary because some people were not abiding by the 14-day quarantine, potentially increasing their chances of getting the virus. 

A new revision to the quarantine stipulates only one person per household can go out between 7 am and noon on weekdays, reports the VOA.