RESPIRATOR CASE: Witness Alagić changed her testimony compared to the one from the investigation

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - A witness of the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina recounted how the offer from “Srebrena malina” for the procurement of respirators was considered in the Federal Administration of Civil Protection (FUCZ).

Continuing her testimony, Sunita Alagić, assistant director of the Federal Administration of Civil Protection, said that a meeting attended by herself, FUCZ director Fahrudin Solak, and director of “Srebrena malina” Fikret Hodžić was held on April 3, 2020.

“We talked and considered that offer about respirators. Hodžić explained the delivery deadlines, the difference between invasive and non-invasive ones…”, Alagić recalled, Detektor reports. 

When asked by prosecutor Džermin Pašić which respirators they were procuring, invasive or non-invasive, the witness said she was not competent. She said she did not remember whether they consulted any expert on that occasion, stating that the World Health Organization had published minimum technical specifications.

Alagić claimed that there were three offers from “Srebrena malina” for respirators. She stated that the director told her to prepare a contract and that she drafted it based on the offer they received from the “Government office”, which pertained to 100 respirators of the model HC V E300 at a price of 10,500,000 KM.

When asked who made the decision to conclude a contract with “Srebrena malina”, the witness said: “The one who signed it”, adding that those were Solak and Hodžić.

She explained that the contract was made using a standard template, with the addition of a clause stipulating that a representative of the Institute for Public Health would appoint a representative to take over the respirators, and that they informed that institution about it.

“We sent an act requesting the appointment of a person to carry out the valuation and acceptance,” Alagić claims.

She recounted how Solak called two, three, or four days after the contract was signed and told her that the supplier had informed him of an error in the respirator model designation. She clarified that instead of HC VE300, it should have been ACM 812A.

Alagić said she made a correction to the contract and that Hodžić brought her the original documentation, and that the designation was later corrected on other documents related to this procurement. She stated that in some documents, data from multiple offers from “Srebrena malina” got mixed up.

The prosecutor presented the witness with her statement from the investigation, in which she stated that Solak called regarding the correction of the designation and that she did not know whether she tore up or threw away the original papers. Alagić responded to this, as well as to other presentations of her earlier statement, saying that some claims were formulated with the help of the prosecutors.

After the witness claimed that she made the correction to the contract a few days after its signing on April 3, the prosecutor presented an email she sent to Hodžić on April 21, in which she still mentions the original respirators HC VE300. Alagić said that was a mistake and that her attention in that email was focused on the delivery deadline.

She was also questioned about the decision on exemption from the Law on Public Procurement, which was signed by Solak. It was presented that Alagić stated in the investigation that she believed it was better to apply the negotiated procedure. She then stated that the director made the decision on exemption, emphasizing that it was about saving lives.

The witness explained that she held those views until the Public Procurement Agency, after the declaration of a state of emergency on March 16, sent a statement stating that medical supplies and equipment could be procured through exemption from the Law or through a negotiated procedure.

For abuse of office in the procurement of respirators, the accused are Federal Prime Minister Fadil Novalić, suspended director of the Federal Administration of Civil Protection (FUCZ) Fahrudin Solak, director of the company „F.H. Srebrena malina“ Fikret Hodžić, as well as the company itself, and Federal Minister of Finance Jelka Miličević, who is charged with negligent work.

Alagić's hearing will continue on November 12.