Prosecutor's Office of Republika Srpska unable to indict Zeljković for a year

SARAJEVO, (Patria)  In three weeks it will be a year since the then director of the Institute of Public Health of Republika Srpska, Branislav Zeljković, was arrested on suspicion of irregularities in public procurement during the coronavirus pandemic. By all accounts, he will mark the anniversary without an indictment being filed.

“Most of the evidence has been collected and an analysis of all evidence is currently underway, both individually and in their mutual connection, after which the prosecutor in charge will make a prosecutorial decision,” they say from this judicial institution.

They justify themselves by saying that these are very complex and intricate cases of high-level corruption in which, besides Zeljković, the directors of the companies „Procontrol“ from Banja Luka, Slavko Bojić, „Promeding“ from Laktaši, Dragan Dubravac, and “Travel for fun” Saša Marković, as well as Vladimir Vuletić and several others, are under investigation.

They are suspected of exploiting the emergency situation and, in mutual agreement, manipulating the public procurement process for medical equipment, thereby damaging the budget of Republika Srpska and endangering the lives and health of the citizens of Srpska.

“The medical equipment, suits, and masks were not for medical use, nor did they provide adequate protection against the virus as such,” the prosecutor's office reminds.

While Zeljković awaits an indictment or some other decision from the prosecutor, the party United Srpska has provided him with protection and refuge in the Republika Srpska Civil Protection Administration, where he received an advisory position, which he should not hold by law.

As they confirmed to us, the prosecutor's office is also working intensively on a criminal complaint against the acting director of the Health Insurance Fund of Republika Srpska, Dejan Kusturić, on suspicion of negligent work in service and illegal benefits given to certain companies in connection with the procurement of ventilators.

Likewise, the prosecutor's office is checking information provided to them by the Public Procurement Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding irregularities observed in the work of the Health Insurance Fund during the implementation of public procurement procedures during the state of emergency in Republika Srpska.

The CAPITAL portal requested a report on the status of all ongoing cases related to procurements during the pandemic, where the prosecutor's office did not mention in a single word the investigation into the mobile hospital that was not delivered within the agreed timeframe nor ever put into operation.

Incidentally, the only person sanctioned so far for irregularities during the coronavirus period is the former director of the „Sveti Apostol Luka“ hospital in Doboj, Mladen Gajić.

An indictment was filed against him in April for negligent work in service, after which he reached a plea agreement with the prosecutor's office and received a sentence of ten months in prison.

According to the indictment, instead of medical equipment, he purchased non-medical equipment, damaging the city budget by 82,320 KM.

At Transparency International (TI) BiH, they say that from all that has been presented, citizens and the public in Srpska have no reason to be satisfied with the work of the judiciary.

“Our judiciary is generally inefficient, and in addition, it is further characterized by weak cooperation with law enforcement agencies. If we add to that the fact that the influence of politics and other structures on the judiciary is more than obvious, citizens and the public have more than enough reason to be dissatisfied,” says Damjan Ožegović, a researcher at TI BiH.

In his assessment, investigative bodies were very slow to engage in examining potential illegalities that the media and civil society organizations warned them about during the first wave of the pandemic.

“In addition to the fact that high-level corruption cases have not been prosecuted, there has also been a lack of response from the authorities towards lower-ranking perpetrators of potential corrupt criminal acts. It seems as if the prosecutor's offices are doing everything to not conduct investigations properly and to justify very clear irregularities, and what is concerning in our system is the broad powers of prosecutors who are not accountable to anyone for their omissions and inactions,” concluded Ožegović.