The former director of the company Autoceste Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AC FBiH) Elmedin Voloder commented on allegations of major illegalities in this company.
His reaction followed after NiP president Elmedin Konaković accused him earlier today of embezzling money from that company and that with that misappropriated money they were trying to buy delegates from among the Bosniak people in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament in order to make the Troika (SDP, NiP , NS) prevented in the effort to form the government.
In addition, Konaković spoke about allegedly dubious actions in the construction of the highway, which resulted in multimillion-dollar damage. Voloder said that it was a lie.
“Konaković previously made similar statements regarding vote buying, so it turned out that everything was a lie. Now the statements refer to the alleged crime in AC FBiH while I was the director (from 2021 to 2023), although the contract was signed 2019. As until now, when Konaković makes false accusations against me, I completely reject every word he uttered,” he said.
He questioned Konaković’s ability to problematize the construction of the highway.
“I wonder and ask him, I ask the readers, how can you trust someone who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and is a professor of physical education, and how he has the courage and the right to speak about the engineering profession, which represents very complex and professional skills, knowledge and operations, the field of construction, geodesy, geology, geomechanics and very good knowledge of valid regulations, standards, laws and FIDIC contracts that are applied in the construction of Corridor 5C”, he stated.
For him, it is indicative that no one from AC FBiH or the Ministry of Transport and Communications of FBiH was invited to today’s press conference, where Konaković addressed. He indicated that, as he emphasized, they are responsible and authorized to provide official information about what Konaković said.
“The contract for the Vranduk – Ponirak section was signed in 2019 and was supposed to be completed by 2021. Due to a series of omissions, previously made in the process of selecting contractors, developing projects and implementation, that contract has not yet been completed,” he pointed out.
He believes that Konaković was given documentation that he does not understand and that this is a consequence of the publication of untruths.
“The executive director for legal affairs in AC FBiH was appointed as a member of the NiP, who now has access to all information related to the operations of AC FBiH. The aforementioned person worked as a toll collector. In the meantime, she completed her degree in economics at a private, evening college and now he is acting ID for legal and personnel affairs. Such a person, with no knowledge in the field of construction, gave Konaković a part of the documentation that he did not understand and did not know what he was looking at, and as a result of such ignorance, he presented a very ugly, arrogant, primitive and inappropriate a series of incorrect information against me and the previous administration,” he claims.
Voloder believes that Konaković is trying to collect, as he said, cheap political points.
“In my opinion, all of this is the result of his hatred, especially towards the people from the SDA, and as a result of his ignorance about the tasks that should be performed as a minister. This is an attempt to score cheap political points. However, so as a result of all these fabricated and false accusations, everything will come back to him as a man, directly. He has already been charged to court for previous appearances, so this time will be the same,” he announced.
He pointed out that there are those who are competent to examine AC FBiH contracts, and not politicians.
“It is important for everything that Konaković stated is that instead of him there are authorized bodies that have been examining all contracts in AC FBiH for a long time and that are competent to make binding decisions, and not for politicians who are not competent to do so, especially on professional matters and jobs such as the construction of infrastructure facilities,” he said.
He says that Konaković’s accusations are purely political in nature.
“On my part, there is a suspicion that the ruling Troika is trying to ‘wash their face’ due to handing over the largest state-owned company to the HDZ. Croatia’s interest is not in the construction of Corridor 5C, with the dynamics achieved in the previous period, although it represents a development project and is of vital importance for the economy and the citizens of FBiH,” said Voloder.
He further explained why he believes that these are political accusations.
“I am sure that there are obstructions and that there will be a significant slowdown in the construction of Corridor 5C, because the Indirect Taxation Administration (ITA) does not want to resolve the debt to AC FBiH, which now exceeds the amount of 200 million BAM since 2017 (HDZ and SNSD ), and it directly affects the operations of AC FBiH”, he stated.
He told Konaković that “no lies and fabricated stories will be able to justify the actions of the Troika”, Klix.ba reports.
