NIK probes patient nutrition in Opole hospitals

The irregularities mainly concerned tender proceedings. These involved violations of applicable laws and internal regulations, including in the preparation of the plan for public procurement proceedings, in estimating the value and description of the subject matter of the contract, and in establishing the criteria for evaluating bids. In addition, no reliable verification of statements and documents submitted by contractors during tenders was ensured.

The NIK Delegation in Opole carried out an ad hoc audit entitled The awarding of contracts by medical entities for the feeding of hospital patients in the Opole Province. It covered a total of four medical entities: the Prudnik Medical Center, the Brzeskie Medical Center, the 116th Military Hospital in Opole and the Opole Oncology Center. The inspectors checked the entire course of the public procurement procedure for the hospital's feeding services - not only how the hospital selected the company providing meals to patients, but also whether it supervised their quality.

In each of the surveyed entities, a qualified nutritionist participated in the preparation and execution of orders. The specialist was involved in drawing up the specifications for the orders, as well as during their execution - in verifying the daily and planned menus for the following days. The nutritionist also evaluated the delivered meals in terms of proper temperature, quality and quantity.

Although the audited units used a simplified procedure for awarding contracts for social services, irregularities were found in each of them, consisting of violations of applicable laws and internal regulations. Public procurement regulations were improperly applied both in the preparation and conduct of the procurement procedure. Violations of legal regulations were found in the preparation of the plan for procurement proceedings, in the estimation of its value, in the description of the subject of the contract and in the establishment of criteria for evaluating bids.

In some cases, the irregularities were financial, in other cases - formal. Formal irregularities included the untimely drawing up of a plan of proceedings for the awarding of public contracts by the Brest Medical Center, as well as the unreliable keeping of a register of these contracts on the part of the Opole Oncology Center. In turn, at the 116th Military Hospital in Opole, the obligation to update the proceedings plan was omitted. In addition, in this entity, the evaluation of bids was carried out unreliably, which consisted of selecting those that should have been rejected due to non-compliance with the terms of the contract.

The audit found that PLN 4.7 thousand was spent at the Opole Oncology Center in violation of the principles of sound financial management. However, the most violations of procedures were noted at the Prudnik Medical Center, where the value of the contract was not determined at the stage of preparation for the proceedings, resulting in a contract worth PLN 183.3 thousand gross, in violation of the Public Procurement Law. The Prudnik Hospital also failed to enforce the entire amount due under the contractual penalty charged to the contractor for improper performance of the contract. Indeed, PLN 27.9 thousand remained to be recovered.

The Opole Delegation formulated a total of 14 post-inspection conclusions. These conclusions concerned ensuring the correct application of the Public Procurement Law, including the formulation of the Terms of Reference. It is also necessary to correctly estimate contracts to avoid unauthorized omission of regulations, as well as to strengthen supervision of the awarding of public contracts. Other examples are the request to evaluate submitted bids only on the basis of the evaluation criteria adopted in the Terms of Reference, and to ensure reliable verification of statements and documents submitted by contractors in the procurement procedure.

Post-inspection requests addressed to the managers of four hospitals - Prudnik Medical Center, Brest Medical Center, Opole Oncology Center and 116th Military Hospital - have been fully implemented.

Source: NIK