TI BiH won a second lawsuit for concealing the contract on the construction of the Banjaluka – Prijedor Highway

The judgment states that the Ministry is obliged to protect citizens’ trust in the way public funds are managed and spent

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) won a second lawsuit against the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Srpska due to the illegal concealment of the concession contract for the construction of the Banjaluka-Prijedor Highway, which was concluded in 2018 with the Chinese company Shandong Hi-Speed International ( SDHS). Although already in the first judgement, the District Court in Banja Luka clearly stated that the public has the right to know under what financial conditions this project was agreed, the Ministry refused to grant access to the contract and issued a new decision that ignores the essence of the court judgement.

Because of this, TI BiH filed a new lawsuit, and this time the Chinese investor even agreed to publish part of the contract, except for the part related to the financial model. Despite this, the Ministry decided to refuse access with the explanation that the incomplete contract publication would lead to “misunderstanding” of the requested information.

Such explanations were not accepted by the District Court in Banja Luka, which, in the new judgement, states that the Ministry ignored the previous court decision and the interest of citizens when making the decision to hide information on such an important project from the public.

– As it is obliged to protect the principle of trust towards investors, the defendant (Ministry) is also obliged to protect the trust of citizens in the way of managing and spending public funds collected from citizens, so the action of the defendant is surprising, stating that by publishing information, for which the concessionaire 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. The question arises as to how the defendant came to the conclusion as in the explanation, because it does not refer to the laws but to its general view of the potential situation, and even points out that by neglecting the interests of the contractor, there would be a negative impact on some other unknown future investors,, it is stated in the new court judgement.

In the judgment, the court also reminds that a public body can be fined from BAM 1,500 to 5,000 if a new administrative act is passed contrary to the legal understanding of the court, which apparently happened after the first judgment.

– General explanations and personal arbitrary positions of the authorities are not acceptable in the administrative procedure, as stated in the judgement, which clearly and unequivocally confirmed the positions of the TI BiH, which insisted from the beginning that the publication of this information was in the public interest.

This is especially important because of the numerous controversial information in the public and the suspicion that this deal was concluded under harmful conditions for the Republic of Srpska. That is why TI BiH expects the Government of Republika Srpska and the relevant Ministry to comply with the court decision and make the complete contract on the construction of the Banjaluka-Prijedor Highway available to the public, because private interests cannot be put before the interests of the public, who have the right to know how much and to what extent this project cost taxpayers.

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