Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska (ERS) rejected the request of Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BIH) to submit the contract that enabled the Hungarian company “LUGOS Renewables” (LREN) to take over 70 percent of the ownership of the public company “Solarna Elektrana (SE) Trebinje 1” (Solar Power Plant Trebinje 1).
With this contract, the Hungarian investor obtained a concession for the construction of a solar power plant without public bidding under conditions that ERS does not want to disclose to the public. In its response to TI BIH, the ERS management states that the contract has not yet been concluded, but only “its content has been determined.”
In relation to the established content of the contract, the ERS found that there is an exception to the Act on access to information that includes the confidential interests of a third party, and after conducting a public interest investigation, it was determined that the information is not of public interest, they stated from the ERS and added that the Hungarian investor does not agree that the content of the contract should be made public, said TI BiH.
According to the concession contract, ERS was supposed to finish the entire project worth over 100 million BAM by October of this year.
However, this public company apparently had no intention of building this solar power plant, because just ten days later, ERS founded the company “SE Trebinje 1” at its address, which was first given a concession, and then 70 percent of that company was given to the Hungarian company LREN. In this way, the Hungarian investor was introduced to this business without public competition, and the conditions under which the entire project will be financed and implemented are hidden from the public.
In order for everything to be possible, first, the RS Concessions Commission had to agree to transfer the concession contract from ERS to the new company “SE Trebinje 1”, which is possible by law if “ERS cannot implement this project for financial or other reasons”.
In May 2021, the Commission approved the assignment of the concession to the new company “SE Trebinje 1”, which in 2021 had revenues of only 800 BAM. That is why TI BIH asked the Commission for evidence that established the financial condition of this company, as well as that it has secured financial resources.
Then, according to TI BIH’s reply from “SE Trebinje 1”, the Government of RS approved on December 30th, 2021, that 70 percent of the shares in that company be transferred from ERS to the Hungarian LREN.
Since ERS does not want to publish the content of the contract with the Hungarians, officially, it is not even possible to verify the statements from the contract that appeared in the public, according to which ERS ceded 70 percent of ownership to a Hungarian investor for about 5 million BAM, which is the value of the concession and technical documentation related to investments. It states that the Hungarian LREN still has the right to sell back to ERS a 70 percent share at a price that will amount to 16 million BAM if two conditions are not met. One is to sign the annex to the concession agreement and extend the deadline for the construction of the solar power plant, which expires in October this year, by another 24 months, and the other is to fulfill the obligations from Article 16 of the concession agreement, reports TI BiH.
