The Ministry of Transport and Communications of RS continues to ignore court decisions, despite the fourth ruling in favor of TI BiH
The District Court in Banja Luka has upheld the fourth lawsuit by Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) against the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Republika Srpska, and again ordered the Ministry to clearly explain why the Concession Agreement for the Banja Luka–Prijedor highway was declared an exception from publication.
The ruling emphasized that the Ministry, instead of protecting public interest, protected the commercial interests of the Chinese investor, without a public interest test and without citing specific business losses that would result from disclosing information from the Financial Model, thereby misapplying the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the Court’s opinion, even if the commercial interests of the Chinese company were endangered, the Ministry was obliged to assess whether the disclosure of information from the Agreement concerning the financing method for construction and the estimated profit from toll collection on this highway would bring greater benefit to society and public interest, compared to protecting the confidential commercial interests of the concessionaire.
Despite clear legal obligations and four court decisions, the Ministry continues to deny access to key information from the Agreement for the construction of the Banja Luka–Prijedor highway, citing vague claims of trade secrets. In addition to these violations, the Ministry denied the right to appeal in its decision, thereby violating not only the Freedom of Information Act but also the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution of Republika Srpska, which guarantee the right to appeal.
TI BiH reminds that in this case, the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman also issued a recommendation in 2022, ordering the Ministry of Transport and Communications of RS to act on the filed appeal.
Since 2021, TI BiH has been trying to obtain information on all essential elements of the contract for the construction of one of the most important infrastructure projects, for which there is a clear public interest, due to suspicions that this deal was concluded under unfavorable conditions for Republika Srpska.
In this specific case, TI BiH has not realized its right to access information, despite four administrative disputes being resolved in its favor, and all decisions of the Ministry being annulled. The Court was asked to notify the Republican Administrative Inspection due to the Ministry’s continuous non-compliance with the judgments, and to resolve the matter itself, however, the Court refused to do so, although it is obvious that the Ministry is abusing procedural powers to the detriment of TI BiH.
