Anna Nałęcz, associated with the respirator affair, may become head of AOTMiT

In the competition for the position of president of the Agency for the Evaluation of Medical Technology and Tarification (AOTMiT)) Anna Nałęcz reported her candidacy. He presently serves as manager General at the Prime Minister's Office. In the spring of 2020, she was active in the process of purchasing equipment related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including respirators from the arms dealer and tests that proved useless.

– I truly don't know and I can't even realize what's going on around this agency right now. – admits in an interview with the “Election” MP Bolesław Piecha of the Law and Justice, in the past word vice-president of the Parliamentary wellness Committee.

The staff of the Ministry of wellness are besides not acquainted with the activities around the agency. Furthermore, as the “Election” states, even Deputy Minister of the two-week government Maciej Miłkowski, formally liable for the AOTMiT, is not regularly informed about them.

The agency has the task of formulating recommendations to the Minister of Health, assessing the cost-effectiveness of the financing of fresh drugs or fresh treatments by the NFZ. For 10 years, the agency has besides been assessing medical benefits, and in fresh years it has been examining, for example, the request to rise treatment rates so that hospitals can meet the requirements of yearly wage increases for medical staff.

Roman Topor-Smart has served as president of the AOTMiT for the last six years, obtaining a nomination for the second word a year ago after winning the competition for the second consecutive time. Surprisingly, on the evening of November 13th, he was cancelled, with no reasons given. Only an hr and a half after his cancellation, there was an announcement about the competition for the fresh president on the pages of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers. Even Deputy Minister Maciej Miłkowski was not informed of this decision.

There is speculation.

Speculations about the possible causes of the resignation came shortly after the announcement of the decision. According to the information in the diary of Legal Gazeta, it was suggested that Roman Topor-Smart refused to employment persons associated with Law and Justice who sought refuge in the agency, fearing dismissal after the change of power. Sources from “Gazeta Wyborcza” counterrgument, claiming that in the past the axe-wise did not refuse akin favors. Even if he had decided to do so now, after his resignation, the still-in-office vice president could have engaged in hiring "spadochronists", eliminating the request to urgently announce the competition for the fresh president. Therefore, the fast announcement of the competition an hr and a half after the cancellation of the Topor-Smart suggests that the aim was to make a place for a fresh denomination associated with the Law and Justice Party.

The ministry immediately began to hear rumors suggesting that this position could be allocated to the erstwhile Minister Adam Niedzielski, who was resigned in August after the sensitivities of the doctor were revealed on Twitter. Another explanation pointed to Deputy Minister Marcin Martyniak, who was liable in the Ministry for allocating funds for investments under the orders of the Prime Minister. However, it turned out that these speculations had no confirmation.

The acceptance of applications in the competition lasted for a full 10 days, completed on Thursday, November 23. During this time, 5 reports were received. The candidates' hearings took place on Monday, November 27, around noon.

MZ takes the position

On behalf of the Ministry for Election Questions, Iwona Kania, a spokesperson for the MZ, replied with respect to this disturbing information: ‘None of the tenders submitted met the formal requirements. The election squad unanimously decided that the candidates had not obtained an assessment adequate for a affirmative advice to the minister. The Minister of wellness accepted the above advice of the recruitment team”.

In connection with the MZ position, the question is therefore: why these meetings were organised erstwhile no of the offers submitted met the requirements. In addition, it is besides interesting to see why no of the candidates submitted met the requirements, especially given that Roman Topor-Smart, who had just been cancelled, went through the same competition successfully a year ago and won the position of president. Iwona Kania, asked about these issues, replied that the recruitment and interrogation process is regulated by the recruitment team, but did not uncover who was on the team.

The “Election” Gazeta was able to establish that the recruitment squad included Grzegorz Cessak, president of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Bernard Waśko, manager of the National Institute of Public and State wellness of the Hygiene Department, Director-General at the Ministry of wellness Damian Jakubik, and manager of the Supervisory and Control Department of the Ministry of Health. It is worth noting that neither Maciej Miłkowski, in charge of AOTMiT, nor the head of the medical policy department, which is subject to Młkowski, were members of this team.

On Monday (27.12.2023) 3 candidates were interviewed at noon: in addition to Roman Topor-Smart, it was Anna Kowalczuk, erstwhile manager of the National Medicines Institute, presently employed by Astra Zeneca, and Wojciech Wysoczański, whom Topor-Smart hired as manager of the AOTMiT branch in Wrocław six years ago.

As for the further stages of recruitment of the another 2 candidates – no information.

According to unofficial information provided by the portal Unofficially, they are an worker of the National Institute of Public wellness and State wellness of the Hygiene Department and Anna Nałęcz (formerly Goławska), manager general at the Prime Minister's office. It is likely that the current president of the agency was called off for her.

It is worth noting here that Anna Nałęcz worked for the Ministry of wellness many years ago, achieving success in her career after reaching the power of the Law and Justice Party. She began as vice-director, later promoted to the position of manager of 1 of the departments, and yet assumed the position of manager general of the ministry. In the spring of 2020, while in this position, she coordinated purchases related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a controversial acquisition of 1.2 1000 respirators from an arms dealer. The contract, signed by then deputy minister Janusz Cieszynski, provided for a full of PLN 200 million, respective times exceeding the marketplace price. In addition, Nałęcz personally approved the acquisition of a million antigen tests for PLN 125 million, which proved to be ineffective. Earlier, the same tests were contracted by Spain, which sparked a scandal as it turned out that they were only 30% effective.

While Janusz Cieszynski was liable for buying respirators from an arms dealer, Anna Nałęcz (then Goławska) was promoted, assuming the position of Deputy Minister of Health. Since November 2020, she has been liable for digitalisation, among others. After a year, she resigned from this position, covering the function of manager General in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki officially welcomed her with flowers, and Michał Dworczyk, head of KPRM, published a series of photos on Twitter, wishing the fresh manager Annie Goławska many successes.

As a general manager at KPRM, Nałęcz again dealt with purchases, including orders from Janusz Cieszynski, who returned to the government as a typical for digitization and then Minister of Digitalization. 2 months after the transition to the NPRM, Adam Niedzielski appointed her as his typical for coordinating digital actions to combat and combat the COVID-19 epidemic.

“Electoral” said that she asked Anna Nałęcz straight in connection with the reports, is it actual that she has submitted to the competition for president of AOTMiT?

Unfortunately, Nałęcz did not answer by covering herself with a deficiency of legal basis to answer specified a question.

According to portal Anna Nałęcz, she was to ask MZ for papers confirming her employment in the resort. We remind you that working in an institution under the Minister of wellness is 1 of the requirements for candidates for the position of Head of the Agency for the Evaluation of Medical Technology and Tarification (AOTMiT).

It is unclear why the "recruiting team" has not decided to urge to the Minister any candidate for the fresh president of the agency. It is possible that this is due to the participation in the Roman Topor-Smart competition, which in terms of experience surpassed the another candidates, especially Anna Nałęcz, who never dealt with drugs.

However, after the hearings were completed on Monday, Minister Katarzyna Sójka, who resigned that day, decided to announce a fresh competition. Thus, at 16:41 p.m., erstwhile Andrzej Duda established the fresh government of Mateusz Morawiecki at the Presidential Palace, the Chancellery of the president of the Council of Ministers reported that no candidate had been elected in the recruitment of the president of the AOTMiT. 5 minutes later, a fresh competition was announced, for which applications are accepted for another 10 days, until 7 December. This means that the fresh head of the AOTMiT can be elected even before the government is established.