As it was found out, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC) sent the current director of the Highwaysof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), Denis Lasic, an invitation to a hearing due to the investigation into illegalities on the section of the highway on Corridor 5C Vranduk-Ponirak.
As it was unofficially confirmed, as part of this case, the previous director of the FBiH Highways, Elmedin Voloder, has already been questioned. Also, as part of the investigation, a number of people from the FBiH Highways, as well as companies that were involved in the implementation of this section, were heard.
The police did their job
The Federal Police Administration, which is extensively investigating crime in this section, will soon submit its report to the HNC Prosecutor’s Office. Earlier it was confirmed that the Federal Police Administration was asked to undertake certain investigative actions within their competence and to carry out checks of the allegations from the report, as well as an analysis of the submitted documentation and other operative and investigative actions, all with the aim of establishing the correct factual situation and collecting material evidence.
The HNC Prosecutor’s Office formed the “Vranduk-Ponirak” case back in October 2022, and this happened after journalists wrote about malfeasance in the construction of the Vranduk-Ponirak section on Corridor 5C Highway near Zenica.
The case is investigating information that points to organized criminogenic activities such as falsification of documents and other manipulations, that is, conscious price increase, i.e. costs of the total activities in the sub-section, all in order to bring multi-million dollar benefits to individuals.
Lasic recently said that, after a long stoppage, work on this section will soon start again, adding that the new administration headed by him suspended this project after it was appointed because they found that the planned amount (around 150 million euros with additional credit) was spent on a third of the project.
Individuals from Hering and Azvirt
According to unofficial information, individuals stated at the hearing at the HNC Prosecutor’s Office, as well as at the supervisory authority for this section, that the damage caused to this section amounts to more than 50 million euros. Namely, the companies Azvit from Azerbaijan and Hering from Siroki Brijeg were engaged as contractors on this section. As sources involved in the investigation told, individuals from both of these companies are also under scrutiny.
It is important to mention that the contract for the construction of the section Poprikuse – Zenica north (Donja Gracanica), whose subdivision is Vranduk – Ponirak, was signed on May 15th, 2019. The supervision of the execution of the works is carried out by the consortium DRI Investment Management d.o.o (Slovenia) – DIVEL d.o.o Sarajevo (BiH).
This section was supposed to be completed in August 2021. The annex to the contract, which was signed on January 26th of this year, defined a new deadline for the completion of the works, namely March 31st, 2026, N1 writes.
Photo: archive
