Weekly Briefing, Vol. 29, No. 1 (BH), May 2020
Life returning to normal: “The Respirators Affair”
The month and a half of break from affairs and political quarrels among the Bosnia and Herzegovina politicians ended with the toning down of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemics. As the numbers of the new COVID-19 cases began to drop at the end of April and the beginning of May, the pre-crisis reality slowly began to reemerge, taking the media spotlight away from not only the new COVID-19 cases, but also over the much more important negative economic consequences of the measures implemented during the past couple of months. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s return from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemics outbreak back to the unfortunate reality was symbolically marked by a new unpleasant political scandal which touched the entire organizational structure responsible for the managing of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemics.
Although the number of new cases of the SArS-CoV-2 coronavirus did begin to drop significantly at the end of April and the beginning of May, the number of new cases during the better part of May still indicated caution. Since the first case of the COVID-19 was reported on March 5th, little over 1,700 cases were registered on the territory of entire Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the following two weeks, another 500 cases were added to this number. The number of deaths also rose in May. The 70 deaths connected to the coronavirus registered by the end of April was enlarged by another 50 by mid-May. The rise in number of new cases, however, was expected, since by the end of April Bosnia and Herzegovina took control over the spread of the virus. The number of tests was significantly enlarged, methods of tracking the contacts of the diseased patients and the reaction of the healthcare system in general became more efficient. The numbers of new cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina were never rising exponentially, and at the end of April and and beginning of May, the entities’ governments assessed that the many of the previously restrictions can be lifted. Therefore, during the first two weeks of May, life in Bosnia and Herzegovina slowly began to return to normal. By mid-May, there were no curfew, many business, museums, cinemas, art galleries and libraries began to work, while on May 16th the ban on the movement of individuals under 18 and over 65 years of age was lifted in both Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.
It is true that as the days in May passed, Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens people could breathe easier in regard to the detested coronavirus. However, the very idea of “life returning to normal” for Bosnia and Herzegovina, unfortunately, also usually means the return to the revival of various animosities between Bosnia and Herzegovina’s people, political exploitation of these animosities, manipulation of issues belonging to both the past and present realities, administrative mismanagement, affairs and scandals. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s exit from the coronavirus epidemics outbreak was thus symbolically marked by an unpleasant event, the so-called “Respirator Affair” which indicated that little or nothing has changed while the country was in a state of a lockdown.
On April 25th, a shipment of 80 respirators out of total of 100 purchased by the Government of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina through the Federal Administration of Civil Protection arrived from China to Sarajevo. The Prime Minister of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Fadil Novalić personally came to welcome the shipment. However, soon after cameras and journalists turned their eyes elsewhere, problems began to emerge with the shipment in question. On the same day, Sarajevo airport custom workers held the shipment because of the unpaid tax, and while the shipment waited for its papers to be cleared, several superficial inspections made it obvious that the delivered respirators are completely unusable for use in medical treatments. This was further confirmed by the company “Sono Medical”. The issues with the purchased respirators did not stop there, however. Within the next few days, it became clear that there were more to the story than it was previously thought. As it soon turned out, the respirators in questions were not purchased directly by the Federal Administration of Civil Protection, but through the proxy company “Silver Raspberry” (Srebrna Malina) from Srebrenica, owned by a TV presenter Fikret Hodžić, and named as such primarily because it deals with processing and canning of fruits and vegetables. Before it was hired to procure respirators from a private Chinese company, the “Silver Raspberry” never had any dealings with any medical equipment. To make things even more complicated, some news providers reported that the actual purchase of the incompatible equipment from China was done by a company from Podgorica, the “BTL Medical Montenegro” owned by Sanja Lekić, which was hired by the company “Silver Raspberry”. All in all, through the shady dealings of Federal Administration of Civil Protection, with the “Silver Raspberry” and the “BTL Medical Montenegro” companies, more than € 5.3 million was wasted.
The initial reaction of the responsible institutions, together with the defensive response from the government, was swift. The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina opened an official investigation within a few days after the shipment was landed to Sarajevo, and together with the State Investigation and Protection Agency (Državna agencija za istrage i zaštitu; SIPA) of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Security, began combing through the documentation belonging to the Federal Administration of Civil Protection, company “Silver Raspberry” and the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Government’s official response was also made within couple of days after it was plainly visible that the purchase of the respirators is turning out to be a scandal. On April 29th, the director of the office of Prime Minister Hasan Ganibegović issued a signed official statement, confirmed later by the Prime Minister Novalić, claiming that the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina had nothing to do with the procurement of respirators, and calling for an urgent response and action by the Federal Civil Protection Administration, specifically naming its director Fahrudin Solak. Once the State Investigation and Protection Agency confirmed the serious oversights in the purchase of the respirators in question, and once the Prosecutor’s Office announced questioning of the involved individuals, Solak was suspended by the Government by his own suggestion (May 12th). Solak’s place was taken by his former assistant Mustafa Kadribegović. In the meantime, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an order to block the bank accounts of the company “Silver Raspberry”.
Besides the obvious unprofessional handling of the purchase of the unusable respirators and irresponsible managing of the public money, the “Respirators Affairs” opened a multitude of questions which show multidimensional organizational faults of the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s organization structure. Even if it is proved in the end that there were no direct embezzlement attempts, and that the mistakes did not go further than the unprofessional mishandling of the public money, the “Respirators Affair” still would indicate that the huge problem of high level of cronyism and nepotism in Bosnia and Herzegovina still remains. Who and how authorized Solak to procure medical equipment for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina? Who handled the specifications for the equipment? And finally, why and how was the company specialized for the processing of fruits and vegetables chosen to procure specific medical equipment? These are only some of the questions of top interest for the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens at the moment. Especially problematic is the involvement of the Government of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which immediately after the affair appeared attempted to distance itself from everyone involved, despite being responsible for the work of Federal Administration of Civil Protection in general and despite cameras catching Prime Minister Novalić personally being involved in the procurement process.
Conclusion
Whether in the end it will prove to be a sloppy management or a deliberate attempt to embezzle money for purchase of much needed respirators, the “Respirators Affairs” showed once more not only that institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina still suffer from widespread lack of transparency when it comes to managing public money, but also that the country is not immune to such mismanagement even during a national crisis. What makes the whole situation even worse is that the “Respirators Affairs” story was quickly picked up by the Associated Press and then distributed to many other news providers around the world, including the New York Times, which did not fail to remind its readers of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s poor ranking on the Transparency International’s annual global corruption list (101st out of 180 countries). Affairs such as this one always reflect poorly on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s international image and serve as a constant reminder of just how much the country is lagging behind the standards of the European Union.