Mikovic acting head of GAK Narodni Front since 2017
MP Borislav Antonijevic wants a legal basis: the government appointed Mikovic on September 14, 2017, and a 2019 law allows acting directors for six months at most.
Member of Parliament Dr. Borislav Antonijevic of the Mi Snaga Naroda (We, the Power of the People) parliamentary group sent Srpske Novine a statement on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, asking the authorities to publish the legal basis on which Prof. Dr. Zeljko Mikovic still runs the GAK Narodni Front clinic as acting director. The same statement arrived again on Thursday, October 29, at 9:16 a.m., with a question about why only two media outlets had carried it. Antonijevic is an obstetrician-gynecologist and has worked at the clinic since 1999.
The editorial team found no response from the clinic, from Mikovic or from the Ministry of Health to the claims in the statement. Some of them can be checked against public records, while others are, for now, only the MP’s word.
What is known about Mikovic’s appointment?
On September 14, 2017, the Government of Serbia dismissed Prof. Dr. Snezana Rakic as acting director and Mikovic as acting deputy director. The decision appointing Mikovic acting director was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 83/2017, on September 15, 2017. The Ministry of Health confirmed at the time that it had proposed Rakic’s dismissal and Mikovic’s appointment.
Rakic did not reach the top of the clinic through a competition either. The government appointed her acting director in October 2013, when it dismissed longtime director Prof. Dr. Dusan Stanojevic, after a competition that was never completed. She held the post for about four years.
Mikovic signed as acting director on an opinion piece in the daily Danas in April 2020, in which he answered critics and wrote that he was “a man of the profession, not of politics.” The same title appears on the clinic’s job advertisement for a doctor, published on March 2, 2026 on the Ministry of Health website, alongside a decision dated February 27, 2026: “Acting Director Prof. Dr. Zeljko Mikovic.” More than eight years passed between September 2017 and March 2026.
What does the law say about acting directors?
Article 117 of the Law on Health Care (Official Gazette of the RS 25/2019) provides that the founder appoints an acting director “for a period of no more than six months, with only one term allowed,” until a competition for director is held. In his statement, Antonijevic claims that Article 134 of the earlier law set the same six-month limit. The editorial team did not check that earlier law.
What does Antonijevic claim and demand?
The MP says he has warned for years about problems in the clinic’s work and has raised them in the National Assembly, with the clinic’s management, the Ministry of Health and the health inspectorate:
I pointed out irregularities in the treatment of oncology patients, the work of the oncology board, a large number of cesarean sections and serious complications after surgical procedures, including two cases with fatal outcomes. Instead of answers that should have served the interests of patients and the public, we received institutional silence.
These are the MP’s claims, and the sources the editorial team reviewed offer no independent confirmation of them. The statement also says he asked the clinic’s legal department for documentation:
I turned to the legal department of GAK “Narodni front” and requested copies of all appointment decisions from 2017 to date, data on any competitions held for the director’s post, and a written legal explanation for the continued performance of this function.
According to Antonijevic, the reply was brief: “However, instead of being shown the acts under which the institution is run, we were told to consult a lawyer.” He adds: “If everything is lawful, the documents should speak for themselves. A public health institution is not a private office, and its legal department is not there to keep the public in the dark. I am not asking for anyone’s political head, but for an answer to the question of whether the laws and rules are the same for everyone, or whether privilege depends on who appointed whom.”
On Mikovic’s status, Antonijevic states:
According to the information I was given, Prof. Dr. Mikovic has been retired since October 2025 and is registered with the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund as a pensioner, while continuing to perform the function of acting director. There are also claims that he receives both a pension and a salary at the same time.
The MP does not name the source of this information, and no public document the editorial team reviewed confirms it. He therefore demands that the basis for the work be established: “That is why I demand that the competent authorities publish the legal basis on which the function continues to be performed, and that it be officially determined whether the payment of a pension and a salary to the same person is in this case based on valid regulations.”
In the statement he also says he does not see this as the case of one man: “This is not a question about one man, nor an isolated case of one clinic. It is a question of how public institutions were turned into party estates for years, while citizens, patients and employees were forced to bear the consequences.” He closes with the words: “I am not seeking revenge, but lawfulness. I am not seeking a political reckoning, but answers.” Antonijevic addresses his expectations to representatives of the Student List.
Who has responded so far?
As of publication, no response has come from the clinic, from Mikovic or from the Ministry of Health, and the media outlets that carried the statement have received none either.
