The chief prosecutor of Tuzla Canton accepted the complaint Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) and set aside the Order on Suspension of Investigation against the former administration of Rudnik Kreka Tuzla, which distributed jobs worth over a million KM without a tender.
TI BiH filed a criminal complaint for this case back in 2019, because there is a reason to suspect that the managers of the mine avoid conducting public procurement for the business of renting mining machinery and awarded over 200 direct agreements for the same procurement subject to the companies Junuzović-Kopex, MHI KOMPANI and Cayenne company and Titanic doo
According to the Law at the time, only up to 6,000 KM per year could be spent through a direct agreement for the same item of procurement, and about 1.1 million KM and it was an open violation of the law. The TK Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation in July 2022, and a year later suspended the investigation and concluded that the law was broken, but yes in everything there are no features of a criminal act.
This decision of the acting prosecutor was annulled by the Chief Cantonal Prosecutor and ordered the implementation of “specific actions in this case, after which the prosecutor’s decision will be made again“.
What is in dispute in this case is that the acting prosecutor suspended the investigation, concluding that it was about breaking the lawbut that it was “in the interest of the service” even though it is evident that significant illegal property benefits were obtained from the mentioned companies.
They are obviously suspects did the opposite provisions of the Law on Public Procurement and the Rulebook on Public Procurement, but that their actions were not contrary to the interests of the serviceand precisely for this reason, even though all other legal features of the criminal offense of Abuse of position or authority are fulfilled, due to the absence of intention aimed at obtaining benefits for others, and the fact that they did not act in such a way contrary to the interests of the service but rather in the interests of Rudnik Krek, they are not in complete fulfillment of all essential characteristics of the mentioned criminal act, stated the acting prosecutor.
We also point out that the acting prosecutor in this case for one year did not submit the prosecutor’s decisionwhich he was obliged to deliver to TI BiH as the applicant within three days. With that, he denied the applicant the opportunity to express a complaint, and it is even more controversial that the decision was delivered only after several inquiries and complaints due to the lack of information. Because of everything, TI BiH submitted a report to the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor of the HJPC.
Millions invested in other people’s machinery
Affairs with the rental of other people’s machinery in the Kreka Tuzla Mines have been going on for many years, and this public undertaking has spent millions on renting other people’s machinery and equipment, even though it is in an extremely difficult financial situation.
TI BiH also submitted a report of Elektroprivreda BiH to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which concluded that certain machines of this public company were put out of use immediately after the expiration of the warranty period, which created an even greater need to rent other people’s machinery. The report also states that it is really unlikely that the breakdowns of these machines occurred only 10 days after the warranty period expired, and that even during the warranty period there were significant breakdowns and a large number of hours of downtime of bulldozers owned by the mine.
It is also important to remind that one of the reported executives has already been sentenced to a year and a half in prison precisely because of his cooperation with Junuzović-Kopex, because he fictitiously displayed the working hours of the machines of this company.
The Prosecutor’s Office also received a report from the Institutional Audit Office of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which expressed doubts about the justification of spending millions of dollars on renting other people’s machines and workers, because the mine could have bought a significant number of the necessary machinery with those funds, and at that moment it had 2,400 employees. Nevertheless, the mine invests millions in the rental of machines even today, and the work is almost always won by the same bidders.
The Kreka Tuzla mines ended last year with around 1,780 employees, 86 million in revenue and a loss of over 38 million, and they gave over 10.6 million to Junuzović Kopeks for the services of excavation, transport and overburden disposal.
At the same time, this private company, which operates with this and other mines from Elektroprivreda BiH, ended last year with 240 employees, 92 million in revenue and 27.7 million in net profit.
(TIP/Photo: TI BiH/Archive)
