Health Minister Rejects Claims of Medical Mafia Amid ENPF Embezzlement Probe

Health Minister Akmaral Alnazarova responded to allegations of doctors siphoning funds from the Unified National Pension Fund (ENPF), Orda.kz reports.

Alnazarova rejected the terms “medical mafia” or “pharma mafia,” saying:

You absolutely cannot say that. I absolutely disagree with what you said. There are isolated problems, and there are systemic ones. We are working on all of them. The number of falsified estimates has decreased fourfold. There are issues of ineffective management and the use of funds locally.

Yes, due to a lack of tools on our side, we’ve encountered situations where some medical organizations have allowed themselves to falsify data and so on. But these issues are resolved legally, so I can’t talk about some criminal group we’re all fighting. We’re solving the problems we’ve set for ourselves.

In mid-September, investigative teams from FMA carried out mass searches of dental clinics in Atyrau.

According to investigators, one clinic allegedly embezzled over 22 billion tenge, another 20 billion, a third 18 billion, a fourth 13 billion, and a fifth about 9 billion tenge. The searches spanned both the city and regional districts like Jylyoi.

Original Author: Artyom Volkov