On 30 December at the “90th crossing point” near Ashgabat (the village of Rukhabad) the emergency medical service was not operational the whole day.
The emergency medical station did not take telephone calls and consequently did not service the calls.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” found out that there was no petrol at the emergency medical services station.
Dispatchers did not answer the telephone calls because they were prevented from informing the residents that the “ambulance” would not arrive.
At the servicing petroleum depot the executive of the emergency medical services station was warned that the ambulance service had used up the petrol limit for this year and no money had been transferred for a contingency fund.
It should be pointed out that all organizations using motor transport transfer cash for petrol to the petroleum storage depot. These expenditures are included in the organization’s annual budget which is approved by the relevant ministry and subsequently by the government.
The organization’s budget for fuel and oil usually depends on the number of vehicles and frequency of their use.
If it is found that there is a shortage of petrol, payments are made to the account of the petroleum storage depot to supply additional fuel. Emergency services such as firefighters, military, police and emergency medical services have a reserve fund, which should anticipate additional fuel expenditures.
Let us recall that on 18 December President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov instructed that round-the-clock duty be organized in the various services during the holidays.