Sebija Izetbegović: O'Brien is poorly informed, only four out of 15 discipline directors are affiliated with SDA

(Patria) - Current SDA representative in the KS Assembly and former director of the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo, Sebija Izetbegović, reacted to the speech of American diplomat James O'Brien, who also touched upon the SDA and her during her tenure as director.

"During yesterday's address to students of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien made serious criticisms and warnings to the presidents of the ruling Serb and ruling Croat parties in BiH. Given that the 'Bosniak component' cannot be missing from the 'Bosnian tripod', including the one related to threats and warnings from the international community, the SDA was also included in the aforementioned address. This time, it was about me and my mandate as General Director of KCUS.

The speech stated that I "pressured doctors to support SDA or they were removed from directorial positions". Of course, the US Assistant Secretary of State cannot know the details about KCUS and personnel decisions, but those who informed him from Sarajevo should have devised more convincing arguments against me.

This claim about blackmailed discipline directors is unserious and could only amuse those familiar with the situation at KCUS, especially the discipline directors themselves. We all know each other relatively well in Sarajevo, so there's no need to waste many words explaining who is who and which political option they prefer.

I served as General Director for almost eight years, and during that time, 15 individuals, subspecialists with academic titles, changed positions as discipline directors, mostly due to retirement, and sometimes because others had grown and shown better organizational and professional references by the time of re-election.

Discipline directors are selected through an internal competition. The sole criterion for appointment was expertise, determined through the prescribed application procedure, and appointments were confirmed by the KCUS Management Board, which is multi-ethnic and multi-party. Therefore, discipline directors are not appointed by the director. Party affiliation was never a criterion for appointment. Of course, most colleagues have their own party preferences. Out of those 15, only four are affiliated with SDA, which is 26 percent of the total. But, I repeat - that was not the criterion for their appointment, but exclusively their expertise and organizational skills.

The interest of patients is above all else, and especially above the party interests and personal political affiliations of employees. All directors are witnesses that I never asked anyone about their party affiliation, so they can testify that someone from Sarajevo misinformed and misused the US Assistant Secretary of State.

In the photos from the Faculty of Political Sciences, next to the US Assistant Secretary of State, are some of my former patients who can also confirm that they received excellent service, even though they belonged to a different political option, and that I never asked them about it.

As I stated, I did not deal with the party and political affiliation of employees, which can also be proven by the fact that, by my current assessment, less than 15 percent of all heads at the 36 clinics of KCUS are SDA, if even that many.

The management of KCUS did not engage in politics; we focused on our work, and we did it very well.
Thousands of patients who passed through KCUS daily testified to this.

It is precisely the patients who are best qualified to assess the situation at KCUS, as well as the quality of services they could receive until a few months ago, and to compare all of that with the situation they find now, Izetbegović stated.