prijava
SARAJEVO, November 17 (FENA) - According to the plan of the FBiH Civil Protection Staff, it is planned to install the ventilators in the Central Bosnia and Zenica-Doboj Cantons in four hospitals. We are doing everything we can to get the ventilators to the hospitals as soon as possible and be available to those who need them because any ventilator in this situation can be of vital importance for patients, said Acting Director of the FBiH Civil Protection Administration (FUCZ) Mustafa Kadribegović for FENA, answering the question when the remaining 66 ventilators procured from China will be installed.
As he says, everyone is aware of the problems we had at the beginning, which is why the service technicians check each device in detail in their premises before installing it in hospitals, and after installation, they hand over certificates to hospitals.
Answering why it took so long to install these ventilators, which FUCZ procured back in April, Kadribegović said that the public is well aware of all the problems that accompanied the purchase of these ventilators, from the method of import, through the payment of customs and VAT, to their installation and verifications.
“We announced two tenders for service technicians who will install them and no one applied. In the meantime, we tried to get information from the manufacturers about their authorized representative for Europe. We got the name of a company in Ireland that we contacted, but we failed to achieve anything there either, because Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a member of the EU, and that company is a representative of the manufacturer of ventilators ACM812A for the EU. The FBiH Civil Protection Administration sent an e-mail to several companies we know that install medical devices, including ventilators, in order to accurately determine the real price of installing 100 ACM812A ventilators in health care facilities in the Federation of BiH. At the beginning of October, Professional Medic from Ritopek in the Republic of Serbia, which is the largest importer and servicer of medical equipment in Serbia, contacted us with an offer to install ventilators free of charge in cooperation with the company of the same founder, Dre Medical from Sarajevo. As the Professional Medic service technicians have already installed over 1,000 ventilators in the region, and in the meantime, they have also received the representation of the Chinese ventilator manufacturer ACM812A, we started the realization with them. We have previously informed the FBiH Civil Protection Staff about everything, which in conclusion instructed the FBiH Civil Protection Administration to select the best solution for the installation, commissioning and training of personnel for these devices. In parallel with the search for a service technician, we have started the procedure of an open public procurement procedure for the legal verification of ventilators. The verification laboratory Verlab from Sarajevo was the only one to apply for the public call and we signed a contract with them,” explains Kadribegović.
Verlab has not yet verified the installed ventilators in Tuzla and Sarajevo because they informed FUCZ that all employees are in isolation. However, in the meantime, Željko Medak, director of the BiH Institute of Accreditation, stated that Verlab does not have accreditation for the verification of ventilators. The director of Verlab spoke after that but did not offer an answer to that question. When asked what this means for further installation of ventilators, which are becoming more and more necessary due to the spread of coronavirus, Kadribegović answered that authorized service technicians will continue with the installation so that all 100 ventilators are made available to hospitals as soon as possible.
He adds that in a statement issued on Friday, FUCZ has already indicated that it will be forced to initiate legal proceedings related to the contract with Verlab, due to the behavior of Verlab officials, especially from the aspect of protecting business confidentiality of all data available to the verification laboratory in the course of performing their duty.
“This is the obligation of all appointed laboratories according to the Rulebook on appointed metrology laboratories, so why not Verlab's as well. After the verification performed at the Cantonal Hospital in Goražde, claims were made to the public that it was a system error that these ventilators have, and the authorized service technicians, after checking and consulting with the manufacturer, established that there was no system error. Such unnecessary statements lead to additional public harassment and further complication of activities for all of us who are in any way involved in the activities related to the commissioning of these ventilators. Because of all this, we had reason to start doubting Verlab's good intentions, but also their compliance with the terms of the contract. However, given the overall situation and the spread of the pandemic, at this point it is most important for us to install all the ventilators in order to be available to those who need them as soon as possible. We sincerely hope that the verification of the ventilators will be done as soon as possible and that Verlab has all the necessary documents, because at this moment it is in the interest of all of us,” Kadribegović concludes.
(FENA) A. B.
