Due to suspicions of crime in the Federation Highways, by order of POSKOK, members of the Federal Police Administration (FUP) are seizing documentation from this company. Due to suspicions of abuse of office and money laundering, the FUP conducted a search and seized documentation in three cantons, and new evidence was collected on suspicions of crime in the FBiH Highways, against five people arrested last year, including the former director of the Highways, Elmedin Voloder.
All are suspected of rigging during the design and expropriation of land for the construction of the Medakovo-Ozimice subdivision.
“Documentation from the Public Company Autoceste FBiH, three legal entities and one natural person from the Sarajevo Canton, and one law and notary office from the Zenica-Doboj Canton have been temporarily seized. Activities in the aforementioned criminal case were previously conducted under the supervision of the Zenica-Doboj Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office, which are directed at five suspects who are alleged to have committed illegal acts during the design, expropriation of land in the Žepče municipality and the subsequent establishment of the Ljubatovići landfill during the construction of the Corridor 5C highway, Medakovo-Ozimice subsection,” POSKOK states.
In this case, the land near Žepče was purchased from locals and then, it is suspected, resold to Autoceste at a price ten times higher. For example, a plot of land measuring more than 17,500 square meters was purchased for around 35,000 BAM, and sold to Autoceste for more than 440,000 BAM.
Autoceste claims that everything is just part of the crime of the former Administration.
“These three locations at the Ljubatovići landfill were paid for in December 2022 for 61,000 BAM, or two BAM per square meter, and after that, the previous director of the highways, Elmedin Voloder, signed a contract with the new owner of these plots for 851,000 BAM. This caused damage to the highways in the amount of more than 790,000 BAM in that one specific example alone,” points out Asmir Dževlan, executive director of the Public Company Autoceste FBiH.
In parallel, and due to the increase in share prices on Corridor 5C, by more than half a billion BAM on just four shares, these flows and misuse of EU money are being investigated by European and domestic investigators. Due to internal investigations by the EIB, work on the Medakovo–Ozimice subsection, which began two years ago, was suspended. And while scandals and investigations into crime are ongoing in the FBiH Motorways, numerous sections are on hold and kilometers of highway have never been built. From illegal spending of EU loans, stolen centimeters of asphalt, rigging of tenders, bribery to the resale of land – on routes that were supposed to be a European corridor, they are becoming Balkan road robbery.
Photo: illustration
