Slavica has sent a request to a Subotica veterinary station called ‘VETERINAR’ regarding the vaccination of some of the dogs and booster vaccinations of other dogs living at EPAR shelter. This amounts to around 730 dogs in total.
In agreement with existing Serbian legislation, this vaccination treatment should be done free of charge to Slavica. But the vet at ‘VETERINAR’ has written to Slavica and informed her that as far as he is concerned, she must pay herself for every dog at the shelter to be vaccinated.
So now Slavica has written back to the vet in question with the request that he comes and does the vaccinations; but in agreement with the law – which means free of any costs to herself. If vets are not sent to the shelter to undertake the vaccinations, then Slavica is left with no choice but to send a formal charge to the Veterinary Inspector of Subotica, informing him that what is being asked here is illegal.
This will be supported by SAV who will be informing the EU of the situation.
Slavica has fully documented proof obtained over recent years showing that the (vaccination) vets receive all the things necessary for them to undertake the vaccinations. These vaccinations are not only for Rabies, but also other Zoonoses including Bluetongue, Newcastle disease, pig plague etc.
The vets who undertake these vaccinations are supplied with all their needs and goods for FREE from any of 27 specialist veterinary institutes located around the country. As with the vaccination of dogs, the vets supply a monthly bill for their work to the Agricultural ministry and they are paid.
But we know that many vets appear to be directly asking the farmers of animals who need vaccinations to pay them directly from their (farmers) pockets. The vets declare that if they are not paid by the farmers, they will not do the vaccination job. An essential requirement on a farm is to keep all animals vaccinated as necessary.
For dogs vaccination, as shown before in past SAV investigations with Serbian campaigners,
We said:
“The current arrangement is that all the veterinary stations involved in this programme, being those which are located throughout Serbia, each send a monthly report to the National Veterinary Institute and the Veterinary Department of Serbia, detailing specifically how many doses of the (Nobivac Rabies) vaccine they have given in their individual national region (municipality) for that (1 month) period”.
“As a result, once they have been supplied with the monthly information from the individual (municipal) regions, the Republic of Serbia (government) then finances (pays back) the individual regional / municipal veterinary stations for undertaking their monthly vaccination work – ie. the administration of the dose of vaccine to animals by the vaccinator”.
The vets are allowed to submit a monthly report or ‘bill’ to the Ministry informing of what vaccinations they have undertaken. The costs declared on these veterinary reports must be paid to the vets from the republic budget which officially covers these costs.
In addition, the vets are also paid from the city budget.
But in the corrupt systems which operate so much in the world of Serbian ‘animal welfare’, which is anything but the welfare of animals as far as regional authorities are concerned, the vets are still, illegally informing Slavica that she must personally pay them (the vets) for all the vaccinations of the dogs at her shelter (EPAR Subotica).
If this were to happen; ie. Slavica pay the costs herself, and the vets were to then undertake vaccination of all the dogs (and take Slavica’s money), then they would also complete the report or bill paperwork necessary for them to also claim the same costs out of the republic budget.
Basically, THEY WOULD in effect get DOUBLE THE MONEY for doing just one job – vaccinating dogs; money from Slavica and then money from the republic budget also !
Quite rightly, Slavica is refusing to pay the vets with her moneywhen the vaccinations should be done by the vets using money from the republic budget. Ie. The vets are paid just once for doing a job once – not paid twice for one job and illegally getting money out of people such as Slavica when the republic is really covering the costs.
All this leaves is for one to assume rightly that the vets are not happy with this system of one payment for one job, and instead they want to attempt to bend the system and get double, treble or even more money by demanding advance payment from citizens, including farmers, also for doing this very same job which comes directly from republic and municipal funding.
This is corruption by the vets as far as we are concerned. They are being paid three or four times (for a vaccination of both dogs and also farm animals) by ‘bending the system’ for doing the job which is paid from the national and/or regional budget anyway. On top of this, they are demanding monry directly from citizens owning animals or from farmers; or the vaccination is not done !!
Corruption ??
The EU is making big attempts to clean up and eliminate corruption in member states and accession states, which includes Serbia for the future.
The EU must be informed of this corruption by Serbian vets – and they will be.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia | Leave a comment »
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 