Balkans: prone to corruption on both sides of the European border

04.Jul

Some Balkan states have not renounced corruption during the Covid-19 pandemic. On the contrary, some have widely abused the state of emergency. It appears that medical equipment, particularly ventilators, has proven to be a very lucrative business.

“We have to remember that the main businessmen here happened during the war. They took advantage of a situation much worse than this with the pandemic. They were war profiteers, and now they are corona profiteers,” Bosnian journalist Avdo Avdić told Radio Free. Europe.

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The Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia, Fadil Novalić, was arrested at the end of May as one of the suspects of too high a price. Purchase of Chinese respirators. The country’s largest Bosnian party, to which Novalić belongs, called the investigation anti-Bosnian and accused Prosecutor General Gordana Tadić, a Bosnian Croat, of intentionally ignoring other cases involving non-Bosnians . Tadić requested additional police protection after receiving threats.

“I don’t see anything anti-Bosnian in this process. I can’t just watch someone target the prosecutor,” explained Security Minister Fahrudin Radončić, also Bosnian, one of the reasons for his resignation which followed. .

In Republika Srpska, another administrative unit in Bosnia, the investigation into the suspicious purchase of a field hospital was launched after the Institute of Public Health canceled a 1.8 million euro contract. The opposition claims that it was not a hospital, but a tent. They also doubt that the investigation will be successful, accusing the government of total control of the police and the justice system.

In Serbia, authorities have declared public procurement of ventilators top secret, including the number of existing ventilators and those intended to be purchased, as well as their price. Every time the media, opposition and civil society organizations warn that hospitals are overcrowded and protective equipment is lacking, the government accuses them of spreading fake news. The same goes for many other cases in this country that usually never make it to court.

In Slovenia, Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek was arrested this week for a suspicious deal with “Geneplanet” which won an 8 million euro contract for the supply of medical ventilators. Interior Minister Aleš Hojs immediately resigned, saying the action was motivated by the political context and not legal issues. The opposition demands the resignation of the entire government.

As long as similar cases remain politicized, the authorities will bear the burden of corruption. The rule of law is completely opposed to the parallel structures that were carefully maintained for decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The more the so-called deep state makes decisions rather than institutions, the more countries move away from the proclaimed values ​​of the EU, whether they are members or trying to become members.