Head of the Mongolia Health Insurance Authority L.Byambasureng arrested on September 16 by the Anti-Corruption Agency during a meeting of the Ministry of Health.
The official, together with the head of the claims department, are under investigation for conspiracy to obtain kickbacks. Accomplices fictitiously increased the amount of insurance payments for private and public hospitals depending on the number of patients and demanded a certain percentage of these amounts for themselves. They were monitored for about five months, and in September, employees of the Anti-Corruption Agency were able to catch them red-handed.
Subordinates of the managers who gave and received bribes admitted their actions, the investigation continues. Law enforcement officials have not yet provided information about the specific amount of kickbacks and other details of the case, since they have not yet received permission from the prosecutor’s office.
L. Byambasureng, a pediatrician by profession and a Master of Public Health, has been appointed head of the Mongolia Health Insurance Authority in September 2020. Previously, she served as Deputy Minister of Health. A year after taking office, L. Byambasureng was appointed chief pretentious-recoil claims department A. Tovshin, who at that time was the director of Munkhiin Tun LLC – a Mongolian company engaged in the production and sale of medical devices and pharmaceutical products.
Byambasureng decided that the best way to control complaints was to appoint someone to the position who could themselves be the subject of complaints. In 2020, Monkhiin Tun produced up to 150 thousand masks per day to meet domestic demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively monopolizing a titbit of the market at that time.
Biography of L. Byambasureng: in 1982-1984 – nurse at the Main Dermatology Center; from 1991 to 1996 she worked as a therapist at the Sukhbaatar regional medical advisory center; in 1996-1997 she worked as a food hygienist and state inspector in the health department of the Chingeltei region; in 1997-2003 – food hygienist and state inspector in the sanitary inspection of the Bayangol region; in 2006-2008 she was deputy head of the professional inspection department of Ulaanbaatar; in 2008-2012 she herself became the head of the department; in 2015-2016 – head of the public administration department of the main directorate of professional inspection; in 2016-2020 she worked as Deputy Minister of Health. Speaks Russian and English.
According to the official income statement, in 2020 L. Byambasureng received an annual income of 65 million tugriks (1.7 million rubles), in 2023 it increased to 137.4 million (3.7 million rubles). Owns one apartment and one country house, as well as a parking space and a car worth 60 million tugriks (1.6 million rubles, brand not specified). Report of her accomplice A. Tovshin: annual income for 2023 – 31.8 million tugriks (871 thousand rubles); family income is 154.9 million tugriks (4.2 million rubles).
