Police in Bosnia’s semi-autonomous Republika Srpska (RS) entity detained on Thursday morning Branislav Zeljkovic, the head of the RS Public Health Institute, as part of an investigation into abuses in the public procurement process during the pandemic, fictitious money transfers and money laundering.

The action of the RS Interior Ministry, carried out on the order of the Special Department of the Republic Public Prosecutor's Office, has been going on since Wednesday, when three others, Slavko Bojic, Sasa Markovic and Dragan Dubravac were detained.

The subject of the investigation are the contracts concluded by the RS Institute of Public Health during the coronavirus crisis, and the companies Travel4fun and Procontrol are also being investigated.

N1 previously reported on public procurement cases related to the travel agency procuring medical masks. Some of the purchased masks cost 6 KM per piece, which one of the detainees admitted.

“One mask was 6.8 Bosnian Marks, but I repeat – it is a medical KN 95 mask so that citizens do not think that it is a classic three-layer mask that ranged from one to two BAM. These are masks used by hospital staff,” said Slavko Bojic, owner of Procontrol.