Prosecutor's Office of TK filed an indictment against Tulumović and Husić for irregularities in the procurement of equipment for UKC Tuzla

(Patria) - The Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Tuzla Canton has, in a high-level corruption case, filed an indictment against the former director of the University Clinical Center Tuzla, Denijal Tulumović (66), and the assistant director for nursing at UKC Tuzla, Šefik Husić (45).

In two counts of the indictment, Tulumović is charged with two criminal offenses of abuse of position and authority committed in a concurrence. In the third count of the indictment, Husić is charged with aiding Tulumović in the commission of the criminal offense of abuse of position and authority, related to irregularities during the implementation of the public procurement procedure for a linear accelerator, CT simulator, and other accompanying equipment for the needs of the Clinic for Oncology and Radiotherapy of UKC Tuzla. The indictment has been submitted to the Cantonal Court in Tuzla for confirmation.

The investigative team of the Prosecutor's Office of TK and the Criminal Police Sector of the MUP of TK conducted an extensive and detailed investigation in this case, during which several individual and team expert assessments were carried out, and more than 800 pieces of material evidence were attached to the indictment submitted to the court.

In the first count of the indictment, Tulumović is charged with acting contrary to the provisions of the Law on Health Care of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other regulations during the period from January to April 2023, while serving as acting director of UKC Tuzla. He concluded a business cooperation agreement with a private healthcare institution in Tuzla contrary to the aforementioned regulations and previously concluded agreements with other private healthcare institutions, thereby enabling the costs of treatment for five of their patients who developed complications and were admitted to UKC Tuzla to be borne by this public healthcare institution. In this way, he obtained property benefit for the private healthcare institution in the amount of 128,000 BAM and caused damage to UKC Tuzla in the same amount.

In the second count of the indictment, he is charged with acting contrary to the interests of the service and the Law on Public Procurement of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the procedure and implementation of the procurement of a linear accelerator, CT simulator, and other accompanying equipment for UKC Tuzla, valued at approximately 8.5 million BAM excluding VAT, while performing this function in the period from March to October 2023. There is reasonable suspicion that Tulumović, abusing his position, attempted on several occasions to obtain benefit for a company from Mostar, constantly placing this company in a more favorable position, adjusting the technical specifications and characteristics of the devices only to this bidder, thereby preventing equal and non-discriminatory access to the competition for other bidders, and thus delaying the procedure, due to which several hundred oncology patients were unable to receive necessary treatment at UKC Tuzla for an extended period.

In the third count of the indictment, Šefik Husić is charged with, in March 2023, while working as assistant director for nursing, having no authority in this public procurement procedure, aware that he was aiding Tulumović in committing a criminal offense, bringing a pre-prepared technical specification for the devices to the appointed commission and requesting that it be included as part of the tender documentation and that the commission members sign it, which they refused to do. Subsequently, Tulumović annulled the decision on the appointment of that commission and appointed new commission members, to whom an amended technical specification favoring only the company from Mostar was submitted.