Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH) has filed a lawsuit with the Cantonal Court in Livno against the Ministry of Economy of Canton 10 for concealing information about paid concession fees. Although the Government of this canton publicly claims transparency and legality in granting concessions, key data about concessionaires’ operations are persistently hidden from the public.
While publicly presenting their commitment to transparency and calling on citizens and media to “use only official data” through the list of companies that received concessions, the responsible Ministry only allowed TI BiH “direct insight” into concessionaires’ payments.
This effectively prevents free access to information as prescribed by law, which is why TI BiH has initiated legal proceedings. This data is significant given that the Canton’s revenue from mineral resource exploitation has remained at almost the same level for years.
Thus, the 2024 budget plans to collect 400,000 KM from natural resource exploitation revenues, the same amount as in 2021. During this time, concessionaires from this canton for which TI BiH has registry data have increased their revenues by over 400%, profiting from the rise in prices of extracted mineral resources.
This practice is not an isolated case and is common when obtaining information of public importance, representing not only a contradiction to legal obligations but essentially negates the purpose of transparency — this way, citizens are denied information about how much public budgets actually earn from the use of natural resources such as minerals and renewable energy sources, and what the actual financial contribution of these concessions is to public budgets.
According to data from the Concessions Registry in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the annual revenue of all government levels in BiH from concessions amounts to around 125 million KM. The share of this revenue in total current income has fallen to just 0.9%, although BiH exploits enormous natural resources, as numerous concessionaires accumulate large debts. On the other hand, most government bodies have not established concession registries, do not publish or refuse to provide data on collection and concessionaire debts.
This situation represents a huge corruption risk, and in many cases, the modest income from concessions does not justify the damage caused to the environment, property, and even human lives.
TI BiH collects this data from all levels of government and publishes it in the concessions registry to enable more transparent insight into concessionaires’ operations. So far, details have been collected for over 933 concession contracts that institutions at all levels of government in BiH have concluded with over 650 legal entities, to the extent allowed by competent authorities, including data on payments made by concessionaires.
However, in collecting this information, TI BiH encounters numerous obstacles and constantly engages in legal disputes because authorities deny citizens’ right to information of public interest.
