Another one dropped out. Last Thursday, Professor Dr. Momčilo Babić submitted his irrevocable resignation as director of the Republic Health Insurance Fund. Just like his predecessor, Dr. Aleksandar Vuksanović, he resigned at the beginning of December. Just like Vuksanović, he did not last even half of his mandate. Just like Vuksanović, he explained his resignation with "personal reasons". And just like in Vuksanović's case, it is speculated that the real reason for leaving is a strained (better said – bad) relationship with the Minister of Health.
FASTER THAN THE SHIFT: Momčilo Babić
The resignation of the man who, less than two years ago, was entrusted with the largest "coffer" of Serbian healthcare, does not seem to have overly surprised the leaders in the Ministry of Health.
Moreover, a new person was proposed and appointed to the position of acting director quickly (faster than ever before), within a few hours - Dr. Verica Lazić, a dentist and former director of the Control Sector at the RFZO, who, ironically, was previously appointed by Babić. was trying to remove from that position and who, by the way, was one of his opponents in the race for the director of the RFZO last February. Relations between them were allegedly never smooth, but until a few months ago Dr. Babić could hardly have expected such a turn of events.
In the meantime, the public found out that the current director of the RFZO was anything but a favorite of the relevant minister, and that, as we could read in recent days, he did not even answer his phone.
NERVE TRAINING: Dissatisfaction between the Ministry of Health and the RFZO was, as things stand, mutual.
This became particularly evident this summer, when the decision was made to transfer the surplus funds from the RFZO to the pension fund, which would practically mean that the RFZO will have two percent less money at its disposal, and that, translated into money, means 36 billion dinars less for needs in healthcare, on an annual basis. Babić rebelled against that decision, warning the Government that if it did not help, it could cause serious problems. The next blow was dealt by the Assembly with the decision to reduce the number of members of the Management Board from 21 to seven, and the Supervisory Board from seven to five members, according to the amendments to the Law on Health Insurance.
However, everything culminated with the change of the so-called Regulation on the centralized procurement of medicines, which was adopted by the Ministry of Health in November of this year. This practically meant that the RFZO, for the first time, needs to acquire medicines for the A and A1 list, that is, as many as 1.340.000 items - by the end of the year. Given that it takes at least three months to implement this type of public procurement, it was immediately clear that RFZO is unable to meet the deadlines set by the Ministry by decree. Babić responded by addressing the authorities, explaining that the Ministry's request was not feasible. He even, as reported by some dailies, issued an ultimatum: either the decree is changed or he leaves.
We know the epilogue.
PERSONAL AND POLITICAL REASONS: By all accounts, Momčilo Babić's resignation only preempted the dismissal that was being prepared for him for months. Let's recall that in an interview in "Politica" in May of this year, he stated that he is constantly exposed to disavowals and baseless attacks through the tabloid media and that he is threatened with artificial shortages of medicines. "These days they are sending me threats that they will replace me through the new Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar, that they will 'pack' me through the state auditor Radoslav Sretenović," said Babić at the time, adding that his conscience is clear and that he is working in the state and national interest program of the new government. Unofficially, he tried to secure the position by counting on old acquaintances rather than on the current position of a member of the SNS, in which he has been since its foundation and in which he is considered privileged only because he treated Tomislav Nikolić at a time when the latter, as an opposition to the democrat government, , went on hunger strike. Obviously, he could not rely on those connections.
The resignation of Momcilo Babić is another piece of evidence that supports the theory that the position of the director of the Republic Health Insurance Fund is the most stressful job in Serbia, that is, that there is neither a more desirable nor a more rewarding position in the country. If we look back at the last fifteen years of this institution's work, we can see that everyone who sat in that chair - either was under investigation, or ended up in prison or, in the best case, resigned before the end of their mandate. All of them, with the exception of Svetlana Vukajlović, were from the ranks of the white coats. All of them, again with the exception of Svetlana Vukajlović, were party cadres. Everyone was attacked, and those who fell out of favor with the Minister of Health would quickly look for either a new job or a lawyer.
photo: i. pavičevićFORMER: Dr. Aleksandar Vuksanović,...
Dr. Babić's predecessor, Dr. Aleksandar Vuksanović, made the decision to leave the position of director of the RFZO somewhere in the middle of his mandate, at the beginning of December 2012. The scenario of his departure is irresistibly reminiscent of the one that is unfolding right now. Namely, Doctor Vuksanovic wrote his resignation, citing "personal reasons" and emphasizing that it had nothing to do with any political pressure, he even added that "he didn't even know that the authorities wanted to replace him". And yet, signals that such a will exists could be discerned from several events that preceded Vuksanović's decision. At the end of 2012, he was exposed to the criticism of two ministers - Mlađan Dinkić and his line minister Slavica Đukić Dejanović. First, during the debate on the budget in the Parliament, Dinkić accused Vuksanović of being a cadre of the Democratic Party, and that as such he was guilty of accumulating debts of the RFZO towards hospitals, and then the then Minister of Health spoke out, stating that the most important health institutions in the country do not work in in accordance with the law and that the responsibilities were mixed up.
Vuksanović responded to Dinkić's accusations by explaining that the lack of money in the RFZO coffers was the result of a smaller number of employees and unpaid contributions, and not the result of his work, and on that occasion he referred to the data of the Tax Administration, which is responsible for controlling the payment of healthcare contributions, and stated that according to those data, debts for health insurance exceeded the sum of 130 billion dinars. Also, as another reason for insufficient money in the RFZO coffers, Vuksanović highlighted the fact that it was the Government of Serbia that did not pay contributions for 1,3 million unemployed, refugees, displaced and other socially vulnerable categories of the population. Instead of pouring 52 billion dinars into the coffers of the RFZO for this purpose, only 1,6 billion arrived, as he said.
photo: a. Angel...Svetlana Vukajlović,...
Everything eventually ended in his resignation, and Dr. Vuksanović returned to his specialty - urology.
Two years earlier, Svetlana Vukajlović, the first woman in that position, left the position of director of the RFZO.
Although her term of office expired in May 2010, Svetlana Vukajlović was re-elected as director by the Board of Directors of RFZO after a competition announced in the same month. After that, this decision had to go through the personnel commission of the Government and get approval. However, for some reason, the decision of the Board of Directors of the RFZO was removed from the agenda of the personnel commission and, in fact, never made it onto the agenda, and the public was never given an explanation as to why. What could be read in the newspaper was that the position of the director of the RFZO, according to the coalition agreement, would go to the Democratic Party and that this is the reason why Vukajlović did not pass the personnel committee of the Government, because there were no objections to her work.
Svetlana Vukajlović has repeatedly proven that she is the best manager in the public sector. During her management of the Fund, this institution grew from deficit financing and huge debt to a sustainable financial system. During her mandate, waiting lists for surgical interventions were reduced and the number of interventions in cardiac surgery and orthopedics increased, drug and implant material price controls were introduced, and significant savings were achieved through the centralization of procurement, the number of insured persons sent abroad for treatment increased, and is the financing of in vitro fertilization, and on her personal initiative, the Parents' House for children with cancer, the first of its kind in Serbia, was built. After four months spent in a state of weightlessness, in the position of acting director of the RFZO, and without any response from the Government, despite persistent insistence, Vukajlović tenders her irrevocable resignation.
... Mijat Savić
Less than a year later (in September 2011), she was arrested on the basis of an indictment filed on the suspicion that at the end of 2009, together with Smiljka Mileusnić Adžić, Vladimir Gravar and Ljubomir Pavićević, she participated in the illegal procurement of vaccines against influenza A H1N1 and thereby damaged state budget for about 1,25 million euros. She spent more than eight months in detention. She was released at the end of May 2012. Her guilt has not been proven even to this day.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE CALLED MIJAT: Before Svetlana Vukajlović, the Fund was managed by Dr. Mijat Savić, better known today as the father-in-law of Čedomir Jovanović. His management of the Fund, then called the Republic Institute for Health Insurance, was not all honey and milk either. In the same year that he became the head of the RZZO (2001), the then Minister of Health and Environmental Protection, Obren Joksimović, requested his immediate dismissal because, as he said, Savić "contrary to all laws and regulations on supply took over the independent management of the area common medical supply". Joksimović also accused him of poorly cooperating with the relevant ministry, and that he (the minister) only learns about some moves of the RZZO from the media. Savić did not owe him either. Under the slogan "it is most important for the citizens to be supplied with medicines", he did not fail to "remind" of the criminal charges filed against Joksimović when he was a doctor, as well as his other sins from the past, alluding to party skirmishes and favoring Milovan Bojić's staff. Less than a month later, Joksimović, who threatened to overthrow the government if Savić was not relieved of his duties, was no longer a minister. Another major conflict that also ended in Savić's favor was the one with the director of Galenika Zvonko Ostojić, who accused him of damaging this drug factory for several hundred million dollars, which allegedly culminated in a physical showdown with the president of the supervisory board of Galenika. After that, Ostojić was dismissed.
Mijat Savić sat in the chair of the director of the Fund until 2005, and then he returned to his work, pediatrics, at a private clinic.
His predecessor was not so lucky. Tomislav Janković, a gynecologist and a prominent member of JUL, became the head of the Fund in 1998, succeeding his party friend Nenad Đorđević, who went straight from the director's chair to prison for financial fraud. Just at the time of his arrival at the head of the Fund, the sudden rise of the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases "Dedinje" and Dr. Milovan Bojić took place. By the way, Janković was considered a man who knew how to recognize an opportunity, which he best demonstrated with his transfer from SPS to JUL, after which he became one of the favorites of party president Mira Marković, whom he often accompanied on trips to India, when promoting her books. .
He was arrested in March 2001 on the charge that he participated in making fictitious payments from company accounts in favor of JUL, thereby damaging the Republic Institute for Health Insurance and the Institute for Radiology and Oncology for 256.000 German marks at the time during the procurement of cytostatics for the Institute for oncology in 2000 (the so-called "Cytostatics" affair). Although he was initially sentenced to five years in prison, he was acquitted by the Court of Appeal in July of this year.
Coincidentally, the new acting director of the RFZO, Verica Lazić, was Miri Marković's dentist at one time. That qualification certainly did not help her in this case, but the media persistently points out her party closeness to Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar. We will see how he will cope in his new position and whether the acting phase precedes the specific title of director, after the competition, where there will certainly be a lot of interested people (Momčilo Babić, for example, was selected from 11 applicants). One thing is certain, whoever wins that competition and sits in the chair of the director of the RFZO, will definitely need strong nerves and a strong back more than qualifications and knowledge.
Momcilo Babić's mandate will also be remembered for withdrawing unpopular moves.
One of them is the idea of introducing electronic health cards, which was a project of several million euros, and it was supposed to cost every citizen of Serbia 500 dinars. This venture was abandoned after strong public pressure. In addition, in the last two years, the RFZO has been targeted due to the lack of certain materials in hospitals, such as stents and heart valves for cardiology patients, artificial hips and knees.
Also, one of the unforgettable moments is the case of Milena Tabaković, the daughter of the governor of the National Bank of Serbia. Namely, Milena had at her disposal a driver and an official car from RFZO in order to come from Novi Sad to Belgrade for lectures twice a week, and that decision was signed by Babić. The former director of the RFZO is also blamed for not being able to find a common language with pharmacists, which is why there was often a shortage of pentavalent vaccines for the youngest on the market.
However, the biggest sin was that he made decisions about sending seriously ill children abroad for treatment only after public pressure.
