Silence from the Council of Ministers: Bosnia's Medicines Agency without permanent leadership due to SDA and HDZ

The Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been without a director and deputies for five years, warned the president of the Union of the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ramo Rustemović, but there is still no hearing in politics, writes the news agency Patria.

Why this is so was also asked by Mirsad Mešić, a deputy in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the response Mešić received from the Council of Ministers contains no details.

The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed that it is responsible for the said appointments, and that the Ministry of Civil Affairs submitted to it a report on the completed procedure for that appointment and a proposal of the best candidates for consideration and further action. There is therefore no explanation why this is so, while the profession obviously warns in vain that this problem needs to be urgently resolved.

Let us recall, this very important agency has acting director Aleksandar Zolak at its helm, which negatively affects the work of the Agency itself. The appointment was supposed to be on the agenda of the Council of Ministers last year, but at the request of Vjekoslav Bevanda this item was removed and never reinstated! Even the Chairman Denis Zvizdić never became more actively involved in resolving this problem.

Zolak has no deputy from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, so the problem is even greater, because it is now obvious that HDZ and SDA cannot agree on many things, including these appointments.

Problems are evident when it comes to the equal status of workers, the rulebook on systematization which has not been changed for years, and the recruitment of new and professional people is very slow.

- People are retiring, going to other jobs, and filling positions is slow. Not to mention the material status, there is no improvement - said Rustemović.

Incidentally, next year a meeting organized by the European Network of Official Medicines Control Laboratories (OMCL) will be held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Council of Ministers will welcome guests with an interim leadership.