The Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that it had cancelled, due to "suspicion of conflict of interest," the tender for the IT project eBolnice ("eHospitals"), after local media had reported that a company owned by former HDZ health minister, Neven Ljubicic, had applied.

The ministry said that the decision on cancelling the procedure for that item had been made on 13 April after several months of review and evaluation and before it appeared in the media.

The Telegram news website said on Monday that the Ministry of Health had given an IT job worth 3.3 million kuna (€436,000 – without the 25 percent VAT) for the eBolnice digitization project to two companies, with 1.6 million kuna (€211,000) going to an otherwise unknown company called Navada, whose primary business, according to public records, is selling flower bouquets and wreaths.

On Tuesday, Telegram added that the only company to apply for “expert coordination services” in the same tender was Aenona Consulting, owned by prominent member of the ruling HDZ party and former health minister from 2005 to 2008, Neven Ljubicic, who served in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

Ljubicic had first registered the company some 20 days before the deadline for bid submissions. A million kuna (€132,000) has been earmarked for that job.

“On the suggestion of the members of the Expert Commission for Public Procurement, the Ministry of Health has made a decision to cancel the public procurement procedure for the services of key expert coordinator in the eBolnice project on 13 April 2021,” the press release on Wednesday said.

“It can be seen in the publicly published minutes of the review and evaluation of the bid that suspicion of a potential conflict of interest existed long before it appeared in the media,” they added.

The ministry noted that the procedure was part of an EU project financed by EU funds, so it was subject to very strict rules and controls.

(€1 = 7.57 kuna)