Politics

USKOK Investigating Cijepi.se Scandal, Says Jutarnji List

By 17 April 2021
USKOK Investigating Cijepi.se Scandal, Says Jutarnji List
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ZAGREB, 17 April 2021 - The anti-corruption office USKOK back in January this year asked to inspect contracts between a company owned by Vinko Kojundžić and the Health Ministry, Jutarnji List reports on Saturday, noting that a HRK 5.2 million deal was signed by Minister Vili Beroš and the companies Cuspis, IN2 and In-Con.

According to unofficial reports, anti-corruption investigators at the beginning of this year launched a preliminary probe into some of the contracts and deals signed by the Health Ministry and IN2 and Cuspis, whose founder and director Vinko Kojundžić designed the COVID-19 vaccination registration platform cijepise.zdravlje.hr where citizens frequently have problems when registering for vaccination.

The platform drew the interest of the Telegram news portal which on several occasions tried to obtain an answer from the ministry as to who had designed it but to no avail.

The portal eventually discovered the answer on its own, after which Cuspis director Kojundžić admitted that he was the author of the platform from which the companies IN2 and Ericsson Nikola Tesla distanced themselves on Friday after Minister Beroš earlier in the day said the two companies had worked on the platform as well.

Jutarnji List has learned that anti-corruption investigators have allegedly requested from the Health Ministry "complete documentation on six public procurement procedures in which the ministry was the client."

The daily says that Kojundžić was politically active in the 1990s in the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Youth and that he designed the HDZ's first website.

At one time he reportedly also worked in the Konzum retail chain and his name cropped up in media reports when anti-corruption investigators in 2009 raided the offices of the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) over alleged suspicion concerning the work of its IT department.

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