Doubtful contracts and employment, non-transparent tenders, multi-million losses. Audit reports for Elektroprovreda HZHB and University Clinical Hospital Mostar did not show anything that the public in Herzegovina does not already know.
Elektroprivreda ended last year with a loss of more than 81 million marks, and hospital debts in Mostar exceed 93 million. Despite this, they continued with the same practice. No comments on the reports from these companies.
How business was done last year and where the losses came from – is best illustrated by the fact that Elektroprivreda HZHB, due to the inability to produce enough electricity, purchased a certain amount of electricity. There would be nothing disputed if the company had not sold it at a price lower than the purchase price. The drop in income did not prevent Elektroprivreda from hiring more people last year, but compared to the previous year, it increased the cost of salaries and other income by more than 7.4 million BAM.
“What caught my eye was a kind in Rodoč that we wrote about. The rector of the University of Mostar had the obligation to adapt the space. Elektropriovreda paid an advance of 600,000 marks. The university did not adapt the space, and Elektroprivreda is not doing anything. Because we have party staffing at all levels, and then it happens that the interests of the company are not protected”, says Kristina Spajić Perić, journalist of the Hercegovina.info portal.
The interests of the Mostar University Clinical Hospital are not being protected either, which has been operating at a loss for years – as much as 93 million marks last year. Director Ante Kvesić himself expressed doubts about the unlimited operation of this institution. Revenues in 2022 compared to 2021 are lower by more than seven million marks. The audit established that, despite the hospital’s insolvency and the inability to service its liabilities, it continues to employ people, public procurement is non-transparent, deficit staff are paid salaries outside the law, and workers are not paid contributions. Only to those who are retiring.
“The law is violated at the start – from the payment of health services, the conclusion of contracts by the Institute. There, several laws are violated with the approval of the Government itself. It is the government that needs to control this through the Ministry of Health and the Health and Welfare Department. This whole process is illegal”, points out Marin Bago, president of the Association of Citizens for the Protection of Quality of Life Futura Mostar.
From Future, they initiated criminal charges for crimes in healthcare in the amount of 500 million marks, and they are also in court with ZZO of HNK due to contracts with healthcare institutions. Both audit reports are nothing new for Bago, but he is still surprised by almost no reaction from the judiciary.
“We tried it on our own skin in a series of examples where we tested the judiciary – that it is under the control of politics in a clear, open and brutal way”, adds Bago.
“I’m not worried about that audit as much as I’m worried that nothing will change after those audits.” We have audit reports, they agree from year to year.
The difference is only a few million. In 2022, it will be 81 million, next year it will be, perhaps, 70, the next 90, but nothing fundamentally changes in any company”, concludes Spajić Perić.
The auditors found, among other things, that in SKB Mostar there is no indication that anyone would deal with rehabilitation plans, and Elektroprivreda HZHB, despite the significant deviation of income and expenses compared to the planned, did not revise or agree on the annual business plan.
