The former director of the Sarajevo University Clinical Center (KCUS) Faris Gavrankapetanović, the KCUS employee Muvedeta Čedić, and the former Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton (KS) Fikret Musić and the Cantonal Health Minister Zlatko Vuković were all detained today by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) upon the order of the Cantonal prosecutor’s Office in Sarajevo.
They are all suspected of abusing office or power during public procurement procedures at KCUS in 2011 and 2012. The acting prosecutor will decide on future measures against the suspects. However, the Prosecutor’s Office did not specify the purchases in question. SIPA confirmed to journalists that in the operation “Magnet”, they searched several buildings in Sarajevo and detained four (4) suspects.
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) wrote eight years ago about Gavrankapetanović who, after holding public offices in the health sector for several years, became the owner of several apartments and houses, business premises, cottages, and land.
He and his family paid more than two million mark for these properties. Journalists discovered that their total reported income of BAM 1.41 million was not enough to buy such a property.
Also, the journalists found that the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against Faris Gavrankapetanović on the suspicion of abuse of office as head of the KCUS. It is suspected that in the period from 2004 to 2010, his misconduct caused 23.5 million BAM damage to KCUS, due to, among other things, harmful contracts in public procurement procedures.
After the Prosecution opened an investigation against Dr. Gavrankapetanović in 2014, he transferred his real estate to his wife Alma. These included two apartments and five garage spaces that Gavrankapetanović had previously received as a gift from his mother Fikreta. She got them for BAM 600,000.
The Gavrankapetanović family has been acquiring real estate from 1999 to 2013. Gavrankapetanović’s daughter Iman, who at the time was a student without a permanent income, has an apartment and garage purchased for BAM 382,000 his ex-wife Amela has an apartment and garage worth BAM 575,000, and his mother Fikreta a house that was bought for BAM 94,000, while Gavrankapetanović owns houses and land in Počitelj worth nearly BAM 200,000.
In addition, he also got two garages and two apartments in the center of Sarajevo, a gift from his mother Fikreta. She bought the real estate in 2012 for BAM 757,000. However, after the investigation was launched, Gavrankapetanović transferred part of these properties to his wife in January 2014 and December 2013.
In mid-2019, CIN journalists discovered that his mother Fikreta invested another BAM 305,750 in 2010 in the purchase of the devastated villa “Dalmacija” in the Sarajevo settlement of Ilidža.
In 2013, Mrs. Gavrankapetanović together with her relative Vahida Bukvić, mother of Amer Bukvić, former director of “Bosna Bank International” and businessmen from Sarajevo and the United Arab Emirates founded Termes, a catering company. Gavrankapetanović joined this venture as a natural person, while Bukvić joined through her private company.
The business partners brought in, as the capital of the newly founded company, the villa Dalmacija, which they bought for BAM 1.23 million. The remains of the villa will later be replaced by the luxury Hotel “Krone”.
A few years later, Gavrankapetanović and Bukvić pulled out of the business. Gavrankapetanović sold her share to Vahida, who gave her son Amer control over the business.
Faris Gavrankapetanović started his career in 1985 at the Sarajevo Health Care Institute (ZZO). Six months later, he got a job at the Traumatology Clinic of KCUS, where he worked until April 1999. He was then appointed Deputy FBiH Health Minister.
After a short career in the executive branch, in December 2000 he returned to KCUS, this time as a director. He held this position for eleven and a half years. In 2012, he was appointed acting director of the ZZO Sarajevo Canton for three months. In this institution, he also worked as the head of medical affairs, expert associate for control, and controller from 2014 to 2020.
Since 2020, he has been the Director of the Bosniak Institute – Adil Zulfikarpašić Foundation.
