Fahrudin Solak, head of the civil protection authority (FUCZ) in the Federation of BiH, was suspended Tuesday amid a criminal inquiry into the import of ventilators for coronavirus patients that were discovered to be defective
The case arose after the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the Bosnia-Croat Federation government to relax public procurement statutes to allow purchases of medical equipment through direct bargaining with suppliers rather than via public tender.
A raspberry processing firm, Srebrena Malina, that had no license to import medical equipment was then recruited by FUCZ to procure 100 ventilators from China for 10.5 million Bosnian marka ($5.84 million) for care of COVID-19 patients.
