Transparency International in BiH has reported the mayor of Kalinovik municipality to the Republic Commission for Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Government Bodies of Republika Srpska because the municipal administration paid his private company 137,600 KM for catering services. The mayor of Kalinovik
Radomir Sladoje served as deputy mayor of this municipality until his election as mayor in 2020, which is also considered an executive function under the RS Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest, which prohibits holders of executive functions from being in the bodies of business entities that conduct business with government institutions if the value of the business exceeds 30,000 KM.
In addition to these contracts, the mayor of Kalinovik’s private company has been receiving fuel procurement contracts for Forest Management Zelengora for years, and in 2021 alone they received a contract worth approximately 89,000 KM. It is indicative that these contracts were awarded to the private company owned by mayor Radomir Sladoje by FG Zelengora, which is managed by the current deputy mayor of Kalinovik Đorđe Sladoje.
In addition to his function as deputy mayor, he simultaneously serves as acting director of this public enterprise, which is also prohibited by the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest, but the competent Commission has for years not abandoned its position that “an acting director is not a director” and that “a dependent enterprise is not a public enterprise” within the meaning of this law.
In addition to business with RS Forests, the mayor of Kalinovik’s private company has also received contracts from the local utility company JKP RAD Kalinovik in the previous period, also for fuel procurement, and the value of the framework agreement concluded for 2021 amounts to approximately 21,000 KM.
It is interesting that according to publicly available data, the revenues of the mayor of Kalinovik’s private company Blondi d.o.o in 2020 amounted to
Also, when discussing conflict of interest, it should be noted that the municipality of Kalinovik purchased the bankrupt Wood Industry on credit and then, according to media reports, leased it to a company owned by the current mayor’s daughter Elena Sladoje, which had revenues of over 900,000 KM in 2019 alone.
Due to this and similar examples, Transparency International in BiH has long advocated for the improvement of conflict of interest laws at all levels to prohibit private companies owned by officials and members of their immediate family from conducting any type of business with public institutions, establishments, and public enterprises.
