The Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor has initiated, following a complaint by Transparency International in BiH, disciplinary proceedings against the chief prosecutor of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Trebinje, Žarko Milić, who was also the acting prosecutor in the case of fuel procurement for RITE Gacko. TI BiH filed a criminal complaint in this case back in 2021 because the management of this public enterprise distributed million-mark contracts to Optima Group without any public competition.
The District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Trebinje decided back in November 2022 not to conduct an investigation based on this complaint, and this information was not provided to TI BiH as the complainant. Only last year, after an inquiry about the outcome of this case, was the order not to conduct an investigation delivered. In this way, TI BiH was denied the opportunity to file an appeal against this prosecutorial decision, which is why a complaint was submitted to the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor (UDT).
The UDT informed TI BiH that after “investigation and collection of evidence, it was concluded that the allegations of the complaint are founded, and that in this specific case a disciplinary offense of unjustified delay in conducting actions related to the performance of prosecutorial functions was committed”.
The decision on the responsibility of the prosecutor who worked on this case will be made by the disciplinary commission of the HJPC. On the other hand, the case of illegal fuel procurement at RITE Gacko has been closed and no one will be held accountable, although in the opinion of several institutions the law was grossly violated.
RITE Gacko has been procuring fuel for years without public competition from the same supplier, and the excuse each time was “extreme urgency caused by unforeseeable events” because tenders were cancelled due to appeals by dissatisfied bidders. In TI BiH’s opinion, this is an open abuse of legal possibilities whose use cannot be justified by reasons that can be connected to the body conducting the procurement. Here it is completely clear that the management has been causing these “unforeseeable events” for years, and violations of the law have been repeatedly pointed out by the Office for Review of Appeals, the Audit Service of Republika Srpska, as well as the Public Procurement Agency, which also provided information to the prosecutor’s office in this case.
Nevertheless, the Prosecutor’s Office concluded that there was nothing problematic in such conduct, because the appellants who could not participate in the procurement suffered “no damage”.
–Procurement of goods in this manner in the specific case did not cause damage nor was the right of another seriously violated, because if the Contracting Authority had not procured the goods in question in the then stated and only possible way, it would have found itself in a situation where RITE Gacko would halt the production process, which would have incalculable consequences for the public interest and damage to the enterprise itself, states the prosecutorial decision.
The Prosecutor’s Office obviously did not seek an explanation for the fact that this practice lasted almost ten years, that million-mark contracts were awarded to the same bidder, while at the same time other bidders who could not participate in the process were harmed.
The latest such case was recorded in February this year when RITE Gacko management awarded the same bidder 2.8 million KM through negotiated procedure again under the pretext of extreme urgency. In TI BiH’s opinion, such a prosecutorial decision sends a bad message to numerous contracting authorities in BiH that they can openly and with impunity violate the public procurement law, without any consequences.
It should be reminded that this is not the only example where prosecutors make open oversights in cases concerning the biggest corruption scandals. In almost the same case, TI BiH was not informed about the suspension of investigation in the case of illegal procurement by Kreka Mine Tuzla, which is why a disciplinary complaint was also filed against the acting prosecutor. Therefore, TI BiH expects such oversights to be adequately sanctioned, especially due to the devastating results that BiH judiciary has in the field of fighting corruption.
