– The money was distributed by public invitation by the city’s Tourist Organization, and by reviewing the documentation, TIBiH found a series of irregularities and arbitrary decisions by the members of the commission, in which even politically connected associations were favored. By reviewing the tender evaluation forms, it is evident that the commission members gave their evaluations based on personal judgment, without clear and measurable criteria and without any connection with the strategic documents of the City of Banjaluka and the Tourist Organization. Although the Rulebook and forms pre-prescribe the issues that the commission is guided by, there is no evidence that the evaluation was carried out according to clear criteria – it is stated in a statement from Transparency International in BiH.
For example, in the Banja Luka City Development Strategy, sports and recreation are singled out as key priorities in the development of the tourist offer, but numerous sports projects received relatively low marks for this issue, while at the top of the ranking list there are projects that have nothing to do with sports. nor with other strategic goals of the city.
They state that, for example, the project of the Swimming Club “Borac” – “Youth Cup 2025 – Branko Mićin Memorial” received only 12 points, the proposal of the Diving Club “Buk” – “Second Diving Conference” received 16 points, the proposal of the Athletics Club “Alfa” – Winter trail 17 points. On the other hand, in the same category of “compliance with city development strategies” 27 out of a possible 30 points were awarded to the Association of Youth and of Junentus students for the “electronic market” project. This association is led by Savan Vujin, who was mentioned in public as a former member of the presidency of the DNS city committee, and then as a member of the PDP city committee, who is leaving before the 2022 elections.
– Also, 27 points in this category were awarded to the Association of Students and Youth “Optimus” for the “E-postcard” project. Little information is available to the public about this association, and it was recently among the winners of grants from the intervention funds of BH institutions, which were distributed by the member of the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović. In the disputed competition of the Tourist Organization, subjective evaluation of other projects is noticeable, so one cultural and artistic society received a score of 23 for the project of holding its annual concert, while another received a score of 10 for the project of the international ensemble review. Both evaluations were given in the category “improvement of the tourist offer of the city”, although there is a clear difference between a concert by a company and an international concert of an ensemble in terms of improving the tourist offer – TIBiH states.
To this should be added formal omissions, as they say, because three applications that arrived after the deadline were accepted, two of which received funds. In one case, the application was accepted and evaluated, although it was marked as incomplete in the documentation submitted to TI BIH.
– To all this, it should be added that in October 2023, the Main Service for Auditing the Public Sector of the Republic of Srpska indicated that Tourist Organizations in the Republic of Srpska misused funds from the collection of residence tax, which are exclusively intended for the promotion and improvement of tourism. Reviewing the granted tourism grants, the auditors found that about two-thirds of the approved projects cannot be directly linked to the improvement and promotion of tourism – I will highlight from TIBiH.
TIBiH reminds that it has previously pointed out that there are great corruption risks through the financing of citizen association projects where funds are distributed without measurable criteria to associations that are often politically connected to the authorities.
Through earlier research, TIBiH identified over 800 candidates in the elections who were at the head of associations that receive public funds, which clearly indicates that it is necessary to improve the procedures for the allocation of public funds.
– This primarily refers to compliance with the provisions of the Law on Conflict of Interest, and the establishment of clear and measurable criteria for the allocation of funds, public publication of ranking lists, committee minutes, as well as reports on the implementation of projects and their impact on the achievement of strategic goals foreseen in the planning documents, they state. from TIBiH.
(Vijesti.ba/FENA)
