State police questioned three people, including the Prime Minister of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) region, as part of an investigation into the controversial government contract awarded to a company that runs a raspberry farm to procure ventilators which are unfit for treating COVID-19.
The State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) questioned FBiH Prime Minister, Fadil Novalic, the former head of the FBiH Civil Protection Authority, Fahrudin Solak, and the owner of the company Srebrena Malina, Fikret Hodzic.
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The news that Srebrena Malina, a fruit processing company that never dealt with medical equipment before, won a government contract to procure 100 ventilators from China for 10.5 million Bosnian Marks (some 5.3 million Euros) sparked outrage in the semi-autonomous Bosnian region.
According to prosecutors, experts found that the ventilators “did not even meet the minimum characteristics necessary for the adequate treatment of patients in intensive care units, among which are COVID-19 patients.”
