Defense witness of Fikret Hodzic stated that the mediators in the procurement of respirators for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) did not have an agreement on increasing prices in order to obtain a financial benefit.
At the invitation of the Defense of Hodzic, Sanja Lekic, the owner of the company “BTL Medical” from Podgorica, who mediated the procurement of respirators for the Federation in the spring of 2020, testified via video link from Montenegro.
Lekic mentioned that her company procured 15 respirators for the Clinical Center of Montenegro and that it later made a contract with “Sinopharm” from Belgrade for the procurement of 200 pieces of ACM 812A respirators, the same model that the Federation will later order.
The witness said that “Sinopharm” terminated the contract due to untimely delivery and that the case is in court. When asked by defense attorney Mirna Avdibegovic whether it would be true if someone claimed that 100 of those 200 respirators were delivered to the Federation, Lekic replied that it would not.
Lekic said that she had a mediation agreement with Hodzic, because she did not want to be a supplier, so that the situation with delivery deadlines would not repeat. She added that she “ceded” the prices to Hodzic that were offered to her.
She explained that the contract stipulated a commission of 150.000 euros. She claims that most of the commission was intended for her business partner Semir Ceric from London. This money, as she said, was never paid to her.
According to Lekic, the prices of respirators at the beginning of the pandemic changed drastically. To the questions of prosecutor Mirza Hukeljic, she confirmed that in the contract dated March 28th, 2020 with “Sinopharm” the price of respirators was 25.000 euros, and that she and “Exotrade” agreed on a price of 19.500 euros.
The trial continues on November 30th with the hearing of witnesses from the accused Milicevic, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
