Minister of Foreign Affairs Bisera Turkovic commented the scandal that arose due to the donation of the United Arab Emirates, which was first announced to Bosnia and Herzegovina and ended in Montenegro. She pointed out that ambiguities about the value of the equipment have now emerged.
“The ministry received a note from the UAE from the embassy in Podgorica that the aid was intended for BiH. The next day, before the aid arrived, a note came saying that the aid was not intended for BiH but for Montenegro,” Turkovic said, Klix.ba news portal reports.
According to her, the ministry then contacted the person in charge of coordination and that person said it was aid for BiH.
“We tried to make additional checks by calling the UAE, this time they told us that they would connect us with the Embassy in Belgrade, to finally get an apology for the misunderstanding.
The ministry was misled. There is disagreement about the value of the aid, to us, it was said that the value is around 20 million BAM, and from Montenegro, they say that it is 2 million Dollars “, said Turkovic.
(3/3) Ovom izuzetnom donacijom, vrijednom $2 mil, zdravstveni sistem Crne Gore obezbijeđen je neophodnom zaštitnom opremom na duži vremenski period. #CoronaInfoCG
— Duško Marković (@DuskoMarkovicCG) June 7, 2020
Namely, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dusko Markovic, announced on his Twitter account that the aid from the UAE is worth two million dollars, or close to 3.5 million BAM. According to him, it is about 21 tons of medical equipment with which the health system of Montenegro is insured for a longer period of time.
Earlier, it was commented for Klix.ba that the equipment was worth 20 million BAM. For now, it is unclear why Montenegro claims that its value is much lower.