Healthcare institutions receive necessary equipment valued at over 200 millions dinars of "opportunity funds"

Today, Justice Minister Nela Kuburović and Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar handed over 19 medical emergency and non-emergency vehicles, 11 of which were ambulance vehicles, to health institutions in Serbia, including a digital X-ray machine to the Institute for Orthopaedic Surgery “Banjica“. All of those vehicles had been acquired with “opportunity funds“ (unexpended prosecution budget due to non-opportune cases).

Minister Kuburović noted that the Ministry of Justice had advertised public calls for the awarding of “opportunity funds” for a third year in a row. She explained that 445 million dinars between 130 beneficiaries had been allocated this year. “Advancing the healthcare system if one of the Government’s highest priorities, which the Ministry of Justice Awards Committee acknowledged by prioritising projects related to the health system. Over 200 million dinars has been allocated to various healthcare institutions across Serbia”, the Justice Minister said.

Kuburović added that 76 million dinars had been allocated for the acquisition of 19 medical vehicles this year, with the state-of-the-art digital X-ray machine having gone to the Institute for Orthopaedic Surgery “Banjica”. “Following the successful completion of three public calls, over one billion dinars has been allocated. Nearly one half of that went to healthcare-related projects”, she commented.

Kuburović announced that a new public call would be advertised at the beginning of 2019, owing to the public prosecutor’s offices having closed more than 15,000 cases based on the opportunity principle in 2018. She noted that the Ministry of Justice was monitoring the implementation of each of the projects to ensure the allocated funds were being spent in accordance with the original project proposals and to revoke and return the funds to the State Budget where it found that the funds had not been spent appropriately. “I invite all institutions and the civil sector to already start thinking about projects of public interest which they could propose and submit them to the Ministry’s Awards Committee at the start of next year”, she said.

Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar emphasised that over 1.5 million euros of “opportunity funds” had been invested in healthcare institutions this year in full transparency. He added that, aside the ambulance vehicles, other types of vehicles and equipment had also been purchased, such as transportation vehicles for dialysis patients, state-of-the-art “C hand“ machine for the Clinical Centre of Serbia, ultrasounds, anaesthetic machines and operating room lights. He noted, however, that those were only some of the necessary pieces of equipment and vehicles which had been received by the healthcare institutions.