Arévalo government agitates case of multimillion-dollar contract for Sputnik V vaccines

Bernardo Arévalo, the new president of Guatemala who made the fight against corruption his campaign slogan, has denounced the former Minister of Health, Amelia Flores, in court for a millionaire contract signed in 2021 between the government of Guatemala and a Russian company for vaccines against COVID-19.

The agreement, declared confidential by Alejandro Giammattei's government, was questioned due to irregularities that have been gradually reported. Guatemala paid $79.6 million for 8 million doses of Sputnik V vaccines to an intermediary company, as part of a contract for 16 million doses.

Although the case has been investigated for three years, Arévalo intends to speed up the process. He contract It was revealed by his government on April 4, and details of it were revealed that have caused controversy due to their unfavorable nature, among which it stands out that if there was a delay in delivery, the Russian company would be stripped of any responsibility. that if the Guatemalan government complained of any inconvenience, it could only receive $100,000 in compensation and that if the vaccines were deficient, the seller was not going to be responsible for it.

What did the agreement consist of?

At the end of March 2021, almost 7,000 Guatemalans had died from COVID-19.

Amelia Flores, then Minister of Health of Guatemala, closed a million-dollar contract with the company Human Vaccine LLC, a subsidiary of the Russian Direct Investment Fund of Russia, an intermediary, to sell 16 million Sputnik V vaccines to the Central American country, enough to immunize with two doses to the population.

The Russian Sputnik V vaccine No has been approved by the World Health Organization.

The agreement contemplated a price of $9.95 for each dose—19.90 for a two-dose treatment—for 8 million two-dose treatments, $159.2 million in total. The government would initially pay 79.6 million dollars, which corresponded to 50% of the purchase. The company was initially supposed to deliver 8 million vaccines.

For eight months, the company sent the vaccines in several batches, until at the end of December they completed the delivery of the first part.

Given the delays, Giammattei's government began to be questioned by the press. Who decided to buy the vaccines from a Russian company that was not the manufacturer but an intermediary? Why did the arrival of the vaccines take longer than expected? Was a delivery schedule defined? Why was the contract confidential? Why buy a vaccine not approved by the WHO?

The contract expired at the end of March of this year and the government of Guatemala has refused to complete the agreed half.

At the beginning of this month, legislators demanded results of the investigation from the Public Ministry, which has been investigating the case for three years.

The Public Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from the Voice of America for this report.

On April 4, Arevalo said that there were “11 illegal acts that were committed in the Sputnik V vaccine contract, acts of corruption with tremendous implications for the population.”

Among the facts to be investigated, according to the president, is that the contract was signed in English without a simultaneous translation. Favorable conditions for the State of Guatemala were also not negotiated and the contract included a confidentiality clause without justifying the reason.

How is the investigation progressing?

Flores is the main official investigated for the agreement, according to the Public Ministry.

Some civil organizations and legislators believe that Flores should not be the only one prosecuted.

“Giammattei and Pedro Brolo (former Foreign Minister of Guatemala) directed the acquisition of vaccines to a supplier that was not the direct manufacturer of the vaccines, and created the conditions so that the Minister of Health had the only option to sign with that supplier,” says one complaint filed by Manfredo Marroquínfounder of the Citizen Action organization, based in Guatemala City.

This Tuesday, April 16, former Foreign Minister Brolo Vila said in a statement that his role in the case was to “facilitate diplomatic channels with the countries that, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, offered solutions for the purchase of vaccines, as well as the procedures of donations.”

Flores resigned in September 2021, after more than a year at the head of Health. recently gave statements in the middle The timein Guatemala, where she stated that Giammattei and Brolo summoned her to their office to talk to her about the Russian vaccine, despite the fact that she had held conversations with various American manufacturers with whom they made “important progress.”

“At the meeting they told us that since it was a State-to-State negotiation, the Foreign Ministry was going to be in charge of making links with Russia,” he said.

The United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Miguel Martínez at the end of 2023former director of the Government Center of Guatemala, for “demanding large irregular payments to facilitate the purchase of Russian Sputnik V vaccines by the Government of Guatemala.”

Martínez led the government entity created by former President Giammattei in January 2020 and concluded his duties at the beginning of 2021, after closing it after strong criticism from citizens.

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