Tegeltija: Pfizer is blackmailing us, it's time to stop being nice to them

(Patria) - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zoran Tegeltija said that the company Pfizer is blackmailing our country because it does not want to deliver the vaccines we paid for and in accordance with the contract, and that they are looking for new excuses not to do so.

He emphasized that the information that "BiH does not meet the conditions for receiving vaccines because there is written evidence that it does" is not true.

"Today we can receive one million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which has the most complicated storage conditions. My opinion is that Pfizer wants to buy time to resell those vaccines to someone else at a completely different price than the one we paid for 1,230,000 doses. We want them to meet the conditions. Their obligation is to deliver the vaccines to the airport in Sarajevo, everything else is the obligation of BiH," said Tegeltija.

He pointed out that "the aggravating circumstance is that the contract signed in September defines that the delivery deadline is by the end of the first quarter," given that it was expected that the vaccines would be produced by then.

"It seems to me that they are trying to buy time, it is unacceptable and they have no right to blackmail us because we paid for those vaccines. They promised 27,000 vaccines now, and it is high time we stop being nice to them because it is their obligation to deliver what we paid for," said Tegeltija, as reported by N1.

He added that "he does not think we need an amendment to the Law on Public Procurement to procure vaccines, but that he understands the fear that has emerged among some people involved in procurement."

"We are witnesses that the RS has imported the first quantities and expects the next procurement as well. I see no reason not to do the same for Chinese, Russian, and Pfizer vaccines. The Ministry of Civil Affairs was in negotiations with the Russians and the Chinese, but the entities take over the payment obligation. We talked to everyone, but they said they want to talk to the entities," said Tegeltija.