Penza, 7 September 2015. PenzaNews. The so-called “medicinal monopoly” of the age of the former Penza region governor Vasily Bochkarev, when the same companies keep winning the government procurement contracts, must be stopped through honest procurement auctions, an anonymous source in the high echelons of government told PenzaNews agency.

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“Two weeks ago, the acting governor [Ivan Belozertsev] gave [the Penza region Minister of Health Vladimir] Stryuchkov – who, frankly speaking, should have been laid off a long time ago – ten days to conduct an analysis of the medicinal market. They held a meeting session in the government today. There was no actual information on this topic mentioned, but the procurement issue did appear. By the way, this is the second alarm for the ‘chosen ones.’ The first one was on August 24,” the speaker said.

Answering the question on the reasons behind the order for the medicinal procurement analysis, the source suggested that “this may be due to the auction successes of the companies related to the former Penza region senator Boris Shpigel.”

“This is basically a monopoly that leads to growing prices for medicine. It seems that Belozertsev decided that now is not the time for under-counter negotiations and unreasonably spiking prices,” it explained, adding that “the feedback was quick to follow” as “160 managers already arrived here on orders of a very strong person of the field of medicine production to teach the staff to win auctions through honest ways.”

In the source’s opinion, the success of Ivan Belozertsev’s venues on eliminating the “medicinal monopoly” and government procurement transparency relies on a multitude of factors.

“That includes whether he succeeds over the former political beneficiary or not. After all, that person is allegedly a partner of Mister Shpigel and has personal interest in high prices for medicine,” the speaker concluded.