Bosnia Entity’s Secrecy Over Vaccine Procurement Draws Criticism

A woman receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANTONIO BAT.

Following the signing of the contract for direct procurement of 500,000 doses with Chinese vaccine Sinopharm on June 10, BIRN BiH journalists filed a request for free access to information, seeking a copy of the contract.

Instead of forwarding the document, the Federation's Public Health Institute, which signed the contract, said it could not provide it because the entity government on June 24 ruled it "confidential".

Leila Bicakcic, director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, CIN, said that, by its nature, such information should be made public without needing to be requested under FoI laws.

"Such information should, by its nature, be public in advance - the government should publish it, making it known to citizens how many doses of vaccines and at what price they have bought, given that they have waited for so long," Bicakcic said.

She added that decions about requests for access to information are subject to a so-called public interest test. "Under that test, the information would have to be published in the public interest, because it surpasses the confidentiality issue," said the director of CIN, which campaigns to increase transparency through lawsuits against institutions that disrespect the Law on Freedom of Information.

Concerning an additional query to the Health Institute about who requested this "confidential" status, BIRN was told that the request came from the manufacturer.

Semira Degirmedzic, a journalist from Fokus portal, who discovered details of the contract to procure ventilators last year, which resulted in the ongoing trial of the Federation Prime Minister and his deputy, told BIRN BiH that her experience with public...