Transparency International in BiH has requested the City of Banja Luka to conduct oversight of the distribution of public funds for projects financing events that contribute to tourism development in the city. The funds were distributed through a public call by the city’s Tourist Organization, and upon reviewing the documentation, TI BiH identified numerous irregularities and arbitrary decisions by commission members that favored politically connected associations.
Review of the Bid Evaluation Forms shows that commission members gave scores based on personal judgment, without clear and measurable criteria and without any connection to the strategic documents of the City of Banja Luka and Tourist Organization. Although the Rulebook and forms prescribe questions to guide the commission, there is no evidence that the evaluation was conducted according to clear criteria.
For example, the City Development Strategy of Banja Luka identifies sports and recreation as key priorities in developing tourism offerings, but numerous sports projects received relatively low scores for this question, while projects that have nothing to do with sports or other strategic goals of the city are at the top of the ranking list.
For instance, the swimming club “Borac” project – “Youth Cup 2025 – Branko Mićin Memorial” received only 12 points, the Diving Club “Buk” proposal – “II Diving Conference” received 16 points, and the Athletic Club “Alfa” proposal – Winter trail received 17 points. On the other hand, in the same category of “alignment with city development strategies,” the Youth and Student Association JUVENIS received 27 out of 30 possible points for their “electronic marketplace” project. This association is led by Savan Vujin, who was publicly known as a
Additionally, the Student and Youth Association “Optimus” received 27 points in this category for their “E-postcard” project. There is little public information available about this association, which was also recently among the recipients of grants from intervention funds of BiH institutions distributed by BiH Presidency member Željka Cvijanović.
The Tourist Organization’s controversial competition also shows subjective evaluation of other projects, where one cultural-artistic society received a score of 23 for their annual concert project, while another received a score of 10 for an international ensemble showcase project. Both scores were given in the category of “improving the city’s tourist offerings,” despite the clear difference between a single society’s concert and an international ensemble showcase in terms of enhancing tourism offerings.
We should also add the formal oversights, as three applications that arrived after the deadline were accepted, two of which received funding. In one case, an application was accepted and evaluated despite being marked as incomplete in the documentation provided to TI BiH.
It should also be noted that the Main Service for Public Sector Audit of RS in October 2023 indicated that Tourist Organizations in Republika Srpska were
TI BiH has previously emphasized that there are significant corruption risks in financing civil society organization projects where funds are distributed without measurable criteria to associations often politically connected to authorities. Through previous research, TI BiH identified over 800 candidates in elections who were heads of associations receiving public funds, which clearly indicates the need to improve public fund allocation procedures.
This primarily relates to compliance with Conflict of Interest Law provisions, establishing clear and measurable criteria for fund allocation, public disclosure of ranking lists, commission minutes, as well as project implementation reports and their impact on achieving strategic goals outlined in planning documents.
