RS Airports concluded a contract with a company owned by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of this company

Airports of the Republic of Srpska violated the Law on Public Procurement of BiH and the Law on Public Enterprises of RS for concluding a contract regarding the creation of the Development Strategy of the International Airport Trebinje with a company owned by Zoran Injac, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the RS Airports

Banja Luka, 20th September 2017 – The RS Airports adopted the Decision on the selection of the most favourable bidder for the creation of the Development Strategy of the International Airport in Trebinje on 24th August, 2017, according to which the best bidder was a consortium led by the company „WAY2GO“ for the price of BAM 74.900, no VAT included. The company WAY2GO has recently started operating, and one of the two founders is Zoran Injac – the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Airports of the Republic of Srpska.
According to the Law on Public Procurement, the contracting authority may not conclude any procurement contract with a business entity if a Member of the Supervisory Board of that contracting authority is, at the same time, „the shareholder or holder of other rights based on which he is allowed to participate in the management, i.e. the capital of that business entity with more than 20%“. At the moment of awarding the contract, Zoran Injac was the owner of 50% of WAY2GO company, and it is interesting that in the Statement on Conflict of Interest of 5th June 2017, he was obliged to submit, he stated that he was not the owner of any company that, in accordance with the Law on Public Procurement, would be forbidden to conclude the contracts with the RS Airports, although the accounts of „WAY2GO“ company were activated on 22nd May 2017, which implies that this company had already been registered at that time.
Besides, the RS Airports adopted the Decision on initiating this public procurement on 30th March 2017, which enabled Injac to use the privileged information, and to use the period from the moment of Decision adoption until the announcement of the procurement notice, to register the company, apply as the only bidder and be awarded the procurement, despite the legal limitations.
In addition to the limitations provided by the Law on Public Procurement, the Law on Public Enterprises of RS also contains provisions defining the conflict of interest, and prescribes the obligation of the Supervisory Board members to provide the insight into all relations or transactions that might lead to the conflict of interest. Injac submitted the Statement, but failed to provide the information about the ownership of the company he had just established.
Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) submitted this information to the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Srpska, which should as a competent ministry, in accordance with the Law on Public Enterprises, supervise the implementation of this Law. The same information was submitted to the Public Procurement Agency.