The Banja Luka-based Medietik d.o.o. company denied on Wednesday claims made by the opposition in Bosnia’s Serb-majority region that it overcharged the government for the ventilators it procured.
The company rejected “malicious and false claims” of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), which said the company charged the government nearly three times more than it paid for 50 model VG 70 ventilators.
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According to the PDP, ventilators cost the semi-autonomous Bosnian entity more than 7,85 million Bosnian Marks, with each having been paid 157,000 Bosnian Marks, or 134,000 excluding VAT.
The party said that Medietik, on the other hand, bought those ventilators for little more than 2,97 million Bosnian Marks.
PDP leader Borislav Borenovic said the RS Government broke a record and paid ventilators more than anyone else in the region.
Medietik’s statement said that the ventilators were purchased at the height of the coronavirus pandemic when distribution channels were being obstructed and “certain states simply seized aeroplanes with medical equipment if any of them would be found on their territory, in order to keep the medical equipment for themselves.”
The company said that the price of one ventilator was 59,500 Euro, excluding import, shipping and transport costs, while the ventilators were then sold for 134,000 Bosnian Marks each, as the company took over those additional costs.
“If some political parties and media continue to report false claims regarding our company, we will be forced to seek protection in court, as we will not allow the reputation of our company to be tarnished through attempts to place falsehoods in the public,” the company said.
