Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar and Director of the Administration for the Enforcement of Penal Sanctions of the Ministry of Justice Dejan Carević have handed over the keys to 9 ambulance emergency vehicles to various health institutions, which had been purchased with the so-called ‘opportunity’ funds. The award ceremony took place today at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade.
Mr Carević, who is the Chair of the Ministry of Justice Committee for Awarding Funds Collected on the basis of Non-prosecution Agreements—‘opportunity’ funds, has said that to date a total of 5 public calls for the awarding of those funds had been conducted, resulting in over 2 billion dinars being allocated to 585 projects of public interest. He added that in 2020, 500 million dinars had been set aside and distributed across 130 public interest projects, nearly half of which (236,891,692 dinars to be exact) had gone into the health sector. ‘There is practically no place in Serbia which on some basis has not had a beneficiary of “opportunity” funds’, Mr Carević noted, adding that every year funds were also being awarded to other-sector projects, such as education, social welfare, culture, etc.
Health Minister Lončar thanked the Ministry of Justice and Justice Minister Nela Kuburović−Kisić on their support for health-sector projects, which had helped improve the overall state of the health sector. He said that the vehicles parked in front of the Palace of Serbia today were the display of the several millions of dinars of investment in the health sector, including the vehicles acquired with the donation from NIS company.
Some of the health institutions awarded this year have been the Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera Torlak, the Clinical Hospital Centre Dr. Dragiša Mišović, the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Clinic Narodni front (the National Front), the Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia, the National Institute of Occupational Health Care Serbian Railways, the Belgrade Emergency Medical Service, numerous hospitals, primary health-care institutes, etc.
Full statements and video coverage of the ceremony are available on the following website: www.inforbiro.tv.