Work on the construction of the highway in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) should begin in mid-July, under the shadow of criticism due to the secrecy of the concession contract concluded with Chinese investors.
The Banja Luka – Prijedor highway, about forty kilometers long and worth about 297 million euros, will be built by the Chinese company “Shandong Hi-Speed International (SDHS)”.
With that company, the Government of BiH entity Republika Srpska (RS) signed a concession agreement in mid-December 2018.
However, despite the insistence of the civil sector and opposition parties that the Entity Government publish the details of the agreed deal with Chinese investors, the contract is still not available for public inspection.
It is known that the Chinese company will collect tolls on the highway for 30 years, from which it expects revenues of 30 million euros per year.
If there is not enough traffic on the highway, the RS government has committed to pay the difference to the Chinese company from the entity budget.
At the beginning of this year, Transparency International (TI) in BiH launched an administrative dispute against the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the RS.
She decided to take this step after her request to submit a copy of the concession agreement concluded with the Chinese company was rejected.
The representative of TI in BiH, Damjan Ozegovic, told Radio Free Europe (RSE) that he expects a court verdict in favor of this organization, given that it is about data that is hidden from citizens despite being of public interest.
“This highway will pay off handsomely for the Chinese contractors. That’s why we asked for data to see what will be left for the entity budget, bearing in mind that there was complete non-transparency with the choice of contractors,” he noted.
Ozegovic also points out that the public interest must take precedence over personal and private interests, warning that where there is a lack of transparency, “there is always a suspicion of corrupt risks and some hidden interest”.
The company “Shandong Hi-Speed International (SDHS)” which was awarded the concession is registered in Banja Luka.
During the visit, RSE could not get a comment from the Banja Luka branch of that company, whose representatives did not agree to discuss the construction plans and provisions of the concession contract.
When asked by RSE why the concession contract is marked as secret, Stanarevic said that he thinks there is no need for it, and that he is ready to make this document public. However, despite his promise, he did not submit a copy of that document to RSE.
The publication of the contract was announced at the end of last year by the Prime Minister of the RS, Radovan Viskovic. At that time, he said in a statement to journalists that he would do it when the investors allow it, stressing that “they don’t allow it at this moment”.
