Tenders and bureaucracy are blocking the treatment of Bosniak cancer patients, while Nikšić's government prioritizes luxury vehicles

By: Jasmin Šaljić, Party for BiH representative in the KS Assembly

While cancer patients are waiting for essential medications, ministers in the Federation Government are easily agreeing on tenders for the procurement of luxury official vehicles. It seems that the Public Procurement Laws pose no obstacle when it comes to purchasing the latest car models, such as the Touareg, Audi A6, Golf 8, and Arteon R-Line, all from 2024.

It is astonishing that not a single tender for these luxury cars has failed, nor have there been any issues with bureaucratic hurdles. Everything went smoothly, unanimously, and without any objections. However, when it comes to tenders for the procurement of medications for cancer patients, the situation is completely different.

Problems with tenders and the Public Procurement Law have been most pronounced in the healthcare sector in recent months, especially for patients battling cancer. The medication procurement process is burdened by bureaucratic procedures, conflicts between the relevant ministry, the Federation Government, the Federal Health Institute, the Health Insurance Fund, and medication procurement services. It is as if the lives of these patients have become secondary to the luxury needs of politicians.

What is particularly worrying is that these problems are most pronounced in cantons where Bosniaks are the majority, while patients from Republika Srpska are treated in Serbia, and those from cantons with a majority Croat population are treated in Croatia. Seemingly, bureaucratic blockades, regulations, and the daily struggle with cancer without institutional support are reserved only for Bosniaks.

The agony of cancer patients has been ongoing for several months, unfolding before the eyes of the entire public. Citizens are dying due to bureaucratic procedures that, it seems, do not exist when purchasing vehicles worth 1,600,000 convertible marks. All of this was agreed upon and implemented without any obstacles.

Have you, gentlemen ministers, at least once while purchasing luxury vehicles, thought of our fellow citizens who are fighting for every day of their lives due to your incompetence and lack of empathy? If you have been imposed upon the citizens, it does not mean you have to lose all sense of space, time, and environment. If you have been imposed upon, it does not mean you have to indebt us by 600 million marks in less than a year.

If you have already indebted us so much, only God knows for what, you could have at least found funds for cancer patients! You could have invested that 1,600,000 KM, instead of in cars, into purchasing essential medications. We cannot look the sick, their families, friends, and colleagues in the eye out of shame.

A criminal complaint must be filed against you, gentlemen, because you have not provided medications for life-threatening patients. And it is exactly as our fellow citizen Edina Zolj-Balenović recently wrote: "Forgive them, Lord, they know not what they do!"