At the trial of the former Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Selmo Cikotic, the Prosecution’s expert pointed out the harmfulness and irregularities of the changes to the contract on the sale of weapons.
Expert Berko Zecevic said that he analyzed 11,000 pages of material related to contracts on the sale of weapons to the company “Scout”, which date back to 2003 and 2004. He stated that the basic contract between “Scout” and institutions in Republika Srpska (RS) was unprofessional, because part of the subject of sale was not fully defined.
Zecevic said that the deliveries have not been fully realized and that in the meantime transformations are taking place in the defense sector, and that it was only in 2009 and 2010 that it was determined what was available and that annexes to the contracts were being made.
According to him, during the preparation of the annex to the contract, seven to eight years later, changes were made, and it was not determined what the remaining quantity was compared to what was delivered in 2004 and 2005.
The expert began the presentation of his analysis, which he did for two years, with changes to the contract concluded on July 29th, 2004 and worth about 1.3 million dollars. He noted that the sale was planned according to the “you saw it, you bought it” principle, which means that no subsequent complaints could be filed.
He said that the company “Scout” initiated the changes, which it submitted to the Assistant Minister of Defense of BiH for Logistics, and which he submitted to the Minister and his deputies. Annex three, as he stated, changed the amount of weapons.
“The quantities of the older generation have decreased… The quantities of modern weapons for which there is demand on the market have increased,” Zecevic said, adding that BiH’s intention was to get rid of unwanted stocks.
“It’s a shame for the Ministry of Defense, because the main goal was to reduce stocks, not promising weapons,” Zecevic pointed out.
He added that by not getting rid of the old weapons, the costs of their storage also increased.
The indictment accuses Cikotic that in the period from 2009 to 2011 – in agreement with other persons, with the aim of obtaining benefits – he used his official position and favored the company “Scout” from Zagreb.
