Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina has filed a third lawsuit against the RS Ministry of Transport and Communications, which, after losing two court cases, still refuses to publish the Concession Agreement for the Banja Luka-Prijedor highway construction with the company “SDHS-CSI BH”.
Despite the first ruling by the Banja Luka District Court clearly stating that the public has the right to know under which financial conditions this project was agreed upon, and the second ruling in favor of TI BiH where the court warns the Ministry that it is “obligated to protect citizens’ trust in the management and spending of public funds collected from citizens“, the authorities continue to refuse to publish the terms under which one of the most important infrastructure projects was agreed.
Moreover, even the Chinese investor agreed to publish part of the contract with certain exceptions, but the Ministry again refuses to comply with court decisions and persistently conceals the details of the contract signed in 2018 with the Chinese company Shandong Hi-Speed International (SDHS).
It is important to note that after the first ruling, the Chinese company SDHS made a proposal to the Ministry to separate the contract information into sections, whereby the Financial Model would be exempt as confidential commercial information, while the rest of the contract would be published in accordance with the Banja Luka District Court ruling.
The Ministry did not accept this and, based on superficial assessments rather than law, decided not to publish the contract, which led to the court issuing a second ruling stating that “the defendant’s (Ministry’s) conduct is puzzling as they claim that publishing this information, which the concessionaire agreed to disclose, would cause greater damage to the defendant than the public’s right to access information.”
By acting this way, the RS Ministry of Transport and Communications violated the RS Law on Administrative Disputes, which led TI BiH to initiate a third administrative dispute against this body, requesting the court to notify the Republic Administrative Inspection to initiate misdemeanor proceedings against the Ministry and the responsible person in the Ministry.
Since the signing of this contract, TI BiH has insisted on publishing all essential elements of the Banja Luka-Prijedor Highway construction agreement due to widespread suspicions and media reports that this deal was concluded under unfavorable conditions for Republika Srpska. Additionally, TI BiH maintains that the Government of Republika Srpska and the relevant Ministry, as public bodies, not only must respect court decisions but are obligated to place the public interest, which has the right to know how and to what extent this project will cost taxpayers, above private interests of foreign companies.
