Bosnia: Officials, firm owner arrested over ventilator deal
by The Associated PressSARAJEVO, Bosnia — Bosnian authorities have detained two high-ranking state officials and the owner of a private company which imported 100 ventilators from China that were found to be useless for COVID-19 patients.
Bosnia’s media quoted state prosecutors as saying Friday that the arrested men include the prime minister of Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat federation, a top state civil protection official and the owner of the fruit processing company that received about 5 million euros ($5.5 million) from the government to get the equipment.
The three are being investigated for money laundering, fraud, embezzlement of state funds and other crimes, the prosecutors were quoted as saying.
The investigation was opened in March after a public outcry over why Silver Raspberry, the little-known company with ties to Bosnia’s political establishment, was granted the lucrative ventilator deal.
Prosecutors said in their initial report that the imported breathing machines “do not meet even a minimum of necessary characteristics for adequate treatment” of coronavirus patients.
The company owner has rejected accusations that he imported the ventilators at highly inflated prices. He said he used his business connections in China to accomplish what he called a “humanitarian mission.”
The allegations have come as no surprise in Bosnia, which is ranked poorly on Transparency International’s annual global corruption list. The watchdog group last year placed Bosnia 101st out of 180 countries.
Bosnia, which went through a bloody civil war in the 1990’s, is composed of the Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb entity.
Experts have warned that the COVID-19 pandemic, which caught officials in many countries unprepared and ill-equipped to meet the need for protective gear and ventilators, created opportunities for graft as governments rushed to secure supplies.
The Associated Press