For the institutions and officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina, crisis is an unknown concept. Since the beginning of the year, in just five months, they have spent about ten million marks on the purchase of luxury company cars. Even the public debt of 12.7 billion marks, which burdened Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the first quarter of this year, did not prevent officials from treating themselves to luxury vehicles at the expense of citizens.
A huge amount of money is allocated for the purchase of official vehicles every year.
“Institutions and public companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina spend between 50 and 100 million marks every year to buy an average of more than 500 official vehicles. We mean police vehicles, fire engines, ambulances, but also limousines that politicians buy for themselves,” says the investigative journalist from BIRN’s Semir Mujkić.
When it comes to individual amounts, the BiH Presidency leads, allocating as much as 318,000 marks for one limousine. The cabinet of the member of the Presidency, Denis Bećirović, announced that he is not planning a purchase. They are followed by the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, who will spend 311 thousand marks for one vehicle. When it comes to purchases, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska is indisputable, and it will rent 25 vehicles from Porsche Leasing for 1.8 million marks, excluding VAT, which should be returned in four and a half years.
The Government of the Republika Srpska says that leasing is a more favorable option than buying.
“As for the fleet itself, these are vehicles that have been used for 10-15 years. Maintenance is much more expensive than purchasing new vehicles, and I think there is really a justification for such a thing,” says Vojin Mitrović, Minister of Economy and Entrepreneurship of the Republika Srpska.
The business portal “Capital” has been monitoring car purchases in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska for years. They don’t think leasing is profitable. It is much better, as all police forces in the region do, to purchase vehicles directly from the manufacturer.
“That’s how you get a good, high-quality, specialized vehicle at a much lower price and then you make special contracts for their maintenance. With us, the Ministry of Internal Affairs buys 10, 20, 50 cars every year that are used, worn out, but at the same time you don’t have one brand like, for example, it seems to me in Serbia that it is Peugeot”, said Siniša Vukelic from the business portal “Capital”.
The procurement of new vehicles would not be so controversial if it was not already clear from the tenders that these were pre-arranged jobs.
“When defining the technical specifications during the tender procedures, they are set in such a way that it can be assumed exactly in advance which car it will be, and often also from which supplier it will be procured in the case of cheaper cars, they are set up in such a way that a specific car is requested, even though this is prohibited by law through tender procedures,” points out Damjan Ožegović from Transparency International BiH.
Despite the talk of austerity, cutting and rationalizing costs, domestic officials seem to be racing to buy the most expensive and luxurious car. And why wouldn’t they when they don’t pay for them out of their own pockets, but use them as their own.
