– My resignation has nothing to do with any investigation – assured with a smile the departing Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski. The day before, his deputy in charge of public procurement resigned from his post. Both were responsible for purchasing medical equipment needed during the pandemic.
On the morning of the day of Szumowski’s resignation, MPs Michał Szczerba and Dariusz Joński (PO-KO) were once again conducting a parliamentary inspection at the Ministry of Health. In writing, they demanded full documentation regarding contracts for the purchasing of ventilators, visors and antigen tests.
The MPs also wanted to know what contractual penalties are paid by E&K company for failure to meet the contract according to which it was supposed to provide ventilators to the Ministry, as well as how much money it returned, where are the ventilators that were delivered and whether they correspond to the equipment that was ordered. – We were supposed to receive the answer at 4 p.m. Instead, after 3 p.m. the minister announced that he was resigning – Szczerba told „Wyborcza”. – For me these two events are clearly connected. The minister was no longer able to hide the truth and decided to resign,’ the MP surmised.
Earlier, during his press conference, Szczerba predicted Szumowski’s resignation. He said that Szumowski’s deputy in charge of public procurement, Janusz Cieszyński, „is running away from a sinking ship, which the Ministry of Health seems to have become at this moment, after buying medical equipment and personal protective equipment for almost a billion zlotys in the course of two months”. And he called for the departure of the minister himself.
source: wyborcza.pl
photo: Dawid Żuchowicz/Agencja Gazeta
