prijava
SARAJEVO, March 30 (FENA) - The procurement of vaccines is the exclusive obligation of the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This exclusivity is not a matter of constitutional competencies in BiH, but a strict provision of the World Health Organization, in order to avoid the possibility of misuse, such as trading in vaccines on the black market or delivery of fake vaccines, said the Secretary-General of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and a member of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly Halid Genjac.
That is exactly why the United Nations, he emphasized, launched the COVAX program, through which BiH received the first part of the contingent of 1,232,000 vaccines a few days ago, for which we paid in advance about 13 million dollars.
"Mass delivery was supposed to start in January, but the system failed, so we had the first small delivery only last week. It is not only BiH that is facing this problem, but also other countries in the Western Balkans, but also much more influential European countries. The first vaccines through the COVAX mechanism probably would not have been received if the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bisera Turković had not intervened, who held meetings at all relevant addresses in Brussels, after which the whole process was unlocked and accelerated," says Genjac.
The purchase of vaccines is an obligation of the state of BiH, and not anyone's personal or political party obligation, but, says Genjac, that does not mean that the president of the SDA, Bakir Izetbegović, and the staff of the SDA were not actively involved in the procurement.
It is true that the SDA personnel are represented in the government structures, but, says Genjac, they are the least in the structures that have the authority and obligation to procure vaccines.
"Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH is from the SNSD, the Minister of Civil Affairs of BiH is from the HDZ. At the FBiH entity level, the Minister of Health is from the HDZ, as is the director of the FBiH Public Health Institute. The SDA cannot do the work that they, obviously, either do not want or are not capable of doing. It is evident that the SNSD personnel is obstructing the procurement of vaccines, thus trying to make the state level of government meaningless and strengthen the role of the entities. The HDZ personnel, on the other hand, are slow and timid. It is high time that both of them understand that with such obstructions and indolence they are doing damage to all citizens of BiH, even to those whose votes they are counting on," he said.
Commenting on the mass departure of BiH citizens for vaccination in Belgrade and the earlier donation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in vaccines, which some consider humiliation, Genjac states that Croatian citizens went to Serbia for vaccination en masse, and Croatia is a member of the European Union and as such, it is in a better position for procurement of vaccines from other countries in the region. However, they also face similar problems as BiH, but also other European Union countries.
"Vučić used the consequences of obstructions of politicians from the RS entity in the state institutions of BiH in the procurement of vaccines to strengthen his position in the regional framework. Whether the motives of these obstructions are connected with his ambitions, I would not like to speculate. Izetbegović secured 30,000 vaccines from Turkey, 50,000 from China, and we expect the mentioned delivery of vaccines from Malaysia. We do not have precise data on the amount and delivery date yet, but it will certainly be a solid delivery. Those three batches are several times greater in relation to the number of donated vaccines from Serbia and the number of BiH citizens who have been vaccinated in that country in the past few days," Genjac pointed out.
He also responded to the fact that there is still no mass vaccination on the ground.
"We currently have more than 100,000 doses of vaccines in the country, which, I repeat, we procured thanks to the efforts of the SDA President Izetbegović and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bisera Turković. Unfortunately, Izetbegović, Turković and other SDA officials do not carry out the vaccination procedure. If it was also in their jurisdiction, that process would probably go much faster. The system, especially the part in charge of the process of mass immunization, is sluggish, probably because there is no SDA staff in it. The process of immunization is carried out by the cantonal governments and they are the addresses that should offer answers to the questions about the lack of a clearly and precisely defined vaccination plan. In those environments where the SDA staff decides on that, that plan is already in place," stated Genjac.
He emphasizes that the Government of the FBiH has done as much as it could, not only in the process of procuring the vaccines, but since the beginning of the pandemic.
(FENA) S. R.
