Director whose 1,340 vaccines were ruined is SNSD's candidate for mayor of Prijedor

SARAJEVO, (Patria) -  Slobodan Javor, director of the Health Centre in Prijedor and SNSD candidate for mayor of Prijedor, has been cleared of criminal responsibility for the spoilage of 1,340 COVID-19 vaccines at the Health Centre in Prijedor! 

The vaccines were ruined because there was no porter service or porter at this health institution to turn on the generator when the power went out, leading to a break in the cold chain, which caused the spoilage of a large number of vaccines.

Commenting on the prosecution's decision, the head of the DNS parliamentary group in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, Dr. Duško Ivić, said that criminal responsibility was shifted to the head of the HES service, and thus they "punished" those responsible, although, as he notes, in any rule-of-law state, the director is the responsible person. Only in our country is it normal that Javor, as the responsible person, does not know that the Health Centre has no porter service and that there is no one to turn on the generator in case of a power outage. 

"The key question for the prosecution is: - Who should know, if not the director, who takes care of the workers of an institution if not the director?" says Ivić and adds:

- The public must know that the main cause of the vaccine spoilage at the Prijedor Health Centre, which was extremely difficult to procure at that time, was the poor organisation of the institution, where no one knows who does what and what should be done, so the director does not know that in case of a power outage, there is no one to turn on the generator and continue the cold chain necessary for storing vaccines.

According to Ivić, it is obvious that the SNSD is introducing a new political practice of absolving its cadres of all responsibility.

"Does this mean that for about 180,000 AstraZeneca vaccines, whose expiry date is approaching, no one will be held accountable, or will some heads of services be criminally liable, and will the same situation apply to the expiry of about 50,000 Sputnik V vaccines?

Will the spoilage of a huge number of vaccines be blamed on the director of the Institute of Public Health, or will the Minister of Health and Social Protection of Republika Srpska or the Prime Minister of Srpska take responsibility for ignorance, irresponsibility, poor assessment and planning of vaccine procurement in Srpska, or will they again sacrifice some head of service or lower-ranking official?" concludes Ivić.