Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH) filed a third lawsuit against the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the RS, which, even after losing the court case twice, refuses to publish the Concession Agreement for the construction of the Banjaluka-Prijedor highway with the company “SDHS-CSI BH”.
”Despite the first judgment of the District Court in Banja Luka, which makes it clear that the public has the right to know under what financial conditions this project was agreed, and the second judgment in favor of TI BiH, in which the court warns the Ministry that “it is obliged to protect the trust citizens in the way of managing and spending public funds that are collected from the target”, the government still refuses to publish the conditions under which one of the most important infrastructure projects was agreed,” it is stated in a statement from TIBiH.
It is added that to all of the above, even the Chinese investor agreed to publish part of the contract with certain exceptions, but “the Ministry again refuses to act on the court’s decisions and persistently hides the details of the contract concluded in 2018 with the Chinese company Shandong Hi-Speed International (SDHS)”.
“It is important to note that after the first verdict, the Chinese company SDHS made a proposal to the Ministry to separate the information from the contract into parts, so that the Financial Model will be exempted as confidential commercial information, and the rest of the contract will be published in accordance with the judgment of the District Court in Banja Luka,” it is stated in the statement.
It is noted that the Ministry did not accept this, and decided not to publish the contract on the basis of lump-sum assessments, and not the law, which is why the court issued a second verdict in which it states that “the action of the defendant (Ministry) is surprising, stating that the publication of that information would which the concessionaire also agreed to be published, the damage that would occur to the defendant would be greater than the fact that the public has access to the information.”
”In this way, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the RS violated the Law on Administrative Disputes of the RS, which is why the TI BiH initiated a third administrative dispute against this body, with a request that the court informs the Republic Administrative Inspection in order to initiate criminal proceedings against the Ministry and the responsible person in to the Ministry.
Since the signing of this contract, TI BiH insists on publishing all essential elements of the contract on the construction of the Banja Luka-Prijedor Highway due to widespread suspicions and media allegations that this work was concluded under adverse conditions for the Republika Srpska.
In addition, TI BiH is of the opinion that the Government of Republika Srpska and the relevant Ministry, as public bodies, not only have to respect court decisions, but are also obliged to protect the interest of the public, which has the right to know how and to what extent this project will cost taxpayers, put before the private interests of foreign companies.
