Ministry of Trade and Tourism of the Republic of Srpska refuses to act in accordance with the court judgment regarding a contract on privatization of Boska

TI BiH asked from the District Court in Banja Luka to issue a misdemeanor report against the Ministry of Trade and Tourism and the person responsible for non-acting in accordance with the verdict, in order to make the contract on privatization of Boska department store finally available to public

Banja Luka, 14th April 2016 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina asked from the District Court in Banja Luka to issue a misdemeanor report against the Ministry of Trade and Tourism of RS and the person responsible for non-acting in accordance with the verdict related to the refusal of the Ministry to submit to TI BiH a contract on privatization of Boska department store.
More than a year ago TI BiH won an administrative dispute against the Ministry of Trade and Tourism of RS which refused to submit a contract on privatization of Boska department store. TI BiH filed a lawsuit on the basis of which the District Court in Banja Luka passed a verdict which indicated that the Ministry violated Law on Free Access to Information, and that it did not conduct a public interest test, i.e. that it has been illegally hiding the controversial contract and that the given information is not confidential. In the verdict the court ordered the Ministry to act again upon the request filed by TI BiH, following all legal procedures.
After this verdict, there occurred an information that the contract is missing, which was recognized as an attempt of the Ministry of Trade and Tourism not to act in accordance with the court verdict and to continue with hiding information on the controversial privatization. Although the Ministry claimed to have a copy of the contract, it has never published the same, nor has it ever acted in accordance with the court verdict, continuing to hide the information. Proceedings involving organized criminal and corruption were conducted against the key actors of the mentioned privatization in Serbia, which puts an additional significance on the announcement of this contract by the relevant institutions of RS, while hiding the information just enhances doubts about the regularity of the contract.
TI BiH believes that the practice of institutions to keep hiding information of great public importance, even after the verdicts on their disclosure are passed, must be stopped. Therefore, TI BiH requested from the District Court in Banja Luka to issue a misdemeanor report against the Ministry and the responsible person, in order to make the entire contract finally available to public, and to establish the liability for non-acting in accordance with the court verdicts.

Press rls – 14 4 2016 doc eng