VENTILATORS AFFAIR
The contract for the purchase of ventilators was changed, there was no technical error, said Judge Braco Stupar
The trial of Federal Prime Minister Fadil Novalić and others accused of procuring 100 Chinese ventilators worth 10.5 million KM continued today in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the hearing of Sanita Alagić, Assistant Director of the Federal Civil Protection Administration Director Fahrudin Solak and Head of the Finance and Public Procurement Sector
Answering the questions of the state prosecutor Mirza Hukeljić, Alagić confirmed that she and other employees of her service actually valorized the offers for the purchase of medical equipment, in this case for ventilators, according to the instructions of the World Health Organization on the minimum technical characteristics that a medical device must have and their main goal was the shortest delivery time.
Alagić could not confirm whether anyone consulted with the Federal Ministry of Health at the time.
At today's hearing, the discussion about the contract that the Federal Administration of Civil Protection signed with the company "Silver Raspberry" owned by Fikret Hodžić on April 3, 2020, developed again. Alagić reiterated that Director Solak said that a contract should be concluded based on the offer received from the Government of the Federation of B&H for HCV-E003 ventilators.
As she testified earlier, Alagić repeated today that after 3-4 days this contract was revised "due to a technical error".
The chairman of the Council of Judges, Džemila Begović, and a member of the Council, Judge Braco Stupar, also joined the discussion. Explaining how the mistake occurred, Alagić said that the contract was marked HCV-E003, while it was accompanied by an offer and specification for ACM-812A, to which label the contract was eventually revised.
Judge Braco Stupar said that it could not have been a technical error but a change of contract, to which Alagić reiterated that a contract had been drawn up with an offer on HCV-E003.
After the defense of Fahrudin Solak started questioning Alagić, it turned out that the witness later did, as she said, permutations in her work, so in the e-mail in which she asked Fikret Hodžić for an answer as to why the delivery of the ventilators was late, she stated label HCV-E003, while in a written inquiry on the same subject it cited the designation ACM-812A.
Prosecutor Mirza Hukeljić said today that the offer of "Silver Raspberry" for the purchase of ventilators marked ACM812-A was not found in the FCPA, but that it was found at one of the accused.
This witness will be questioned in the next two hearings.
