Category: Data journalism

Bosnian state institutions and companies last year launched tenders for official vehicles worth more than 93 million Bosnian marks – equal to about 46 million euros.

The total value of the tenders actually completed in 2018 was over 19 million euros and bought some 926 vehicles, data from the BIRN BiH database indicate.

This amount includes all vehicles procured last year, including trucks, ambulances and police cars.

Just over 10.6 million KM – 5 million euros – was spent on purchasing 329 official limousines whose price averaged 32,000 KM, about 16,000 euros.

The Medical Faculty in Mostar, in southwest Bosnia, bought the most expensive passenger car. Purchased from the MRM Company from Ljubuski, it cost close to 100,000 KM, including tax. The faculty director, Milanko Bevanda, did not respond to BIRN’s inquiry concerning this procurement by the time of publication.

Mostar University and its members launched eight tenders worth more than 420,000 KM during 2018.

The MRM Company won two of those tenders as the only bidder. The same company won most tenders in Bosnia during 2018, and earned 5.3 million KM through 25 tenders.

MRM from Ljubuski was the only bidder in as many as 96 per cent of the open tenders, or lots, that it won during 2018. There was only one bidder in 87 per cent of all the tenders completed in 2018.

Besides MRM, the biggest tenders were won by Lada Auto Banja Luka (2.6 million KM), Porsche BH Sarajevo (2.1 million KM), Guma M Mostar (1.9 million KM) and Autokomerc V.S. Banja Luka (1.6 million KM).

Only Porsche BH answered BIRN BiH’s queries by the time of publication saying that the company fully complied with procurement  legislation and honoured strict internal policies.

Skoda Superb is one of the most frequently bought vehicles by Bosnian politicians. The District Heating Company from Doboj bought one last year for just over 45,000 euros – including tax, the second most expensive passenger car bought last year.

The director of District Heating, Sladjan Jovic, did not respond fully to BIRN BiH’s inquiry about why such an expensive vehicle was bought, who would use it, or whether they could have purchased a cheaper vehicle.

He did say, however: “The vehicle will be used as an official vehicle for the needs of the Company in accordance with the Company Work Plan and other programming and planning documents of the Company.”

BIRN BiH noted nearly 100 tenders, which make up almost 15 percent of all tenders, for providing detailed vehicle specifications or precise dimensions or features of a certain vehicle, which Public Procurement Law in Bosnia prohibits.

The procurement of 66 ambulances also started last year, while tenders for 28 of them were completed.

Just over a million euros was spent purchasing those vehicles, which was only a fifth of the total sum spent on passenger vehicles.

Used ambulances were bought through three tender procedures.

Officials sought the purchase of even fewer fire trucks – only 35. Some 6.2 million KM – about 3.1 million euros – was spent on buying 161 police vehicles last year.

The total of purchased police vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances was fewer than passenger cars, and their total price was also smaller than the total price of the passenger vehicles.

Read more:

Dodik’s Luxury Limo Stands Out in Bosnian Election

Bosnian Officials Spend 4.5 Million Euros on Vehicles

Among the many politicians driving around Bosnia in the campaign for the general elections on October 7, Milorad Dodik, Bosnian Serb president and candidate for the Serbian seat on Bosnia’s state presidency is riding the costliest limo of all, according to a BIRN database of cars in government ownership.

The current president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, RS,  has listed a Mercedes 500 from 2010 at his disposal, which his office procured for 125,000 euros, based on latest official documents on car maintenance and insurance.

Office of the president of Republika Srpska also has an Audi A8L from 2011 which was procured for 85.000 euros.

The second most expensive passenger car in the BIRN register of official vehicles is a Volkswagen Phaeton from 2013, worth 109,000 euros, which belongs to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers – the state government.

The car is available to the Chair of the Council, Denis Zvizdic, from the main Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, SDA, who is standing as a candidate for the state-level parliament.

Zeljka Cvijanovic, now RS Prime Minister and a candidate for the post of RS president, has at her disposal two Audi A8s, worth more than 100,000 euros. The RS assembly’s General Secretariat spent over 18,000 euros on car tires this year.

The members of Bosnia’s state presidency all have expensive cars. Four of the ten most expensive passenger cars in the Register of Official Cars belong to the presidency.

Three expensive Audi A8s, each worth about 100,000 euros, form part of a fleet of 36 cars worth 1.7 million euros, available for the three members of the presidency and for two candidates standing for this year’s new mandate – Mladen Ivanic and Dragan Covic.

Bosnian Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak, a candidate for the RS assembly, from the opposition Party of Democratic Progress, has an Audi A8L valued at 75,000 euros.

Bosnian Justice minister Josip Grubesa, a candidate for the state parliament from the main Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ BiH, has an Audi A6, worth 50,000 euros.

The BMW of Bosnian Security minister Dragan Mektic, who is running for a seat in the state parliament, has the same value.

Mirko Sarovic, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, from the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, drives a slightly cheaper Audi A6 than his party colleague Mektic.

The head of the public roads company in the RS, Putevi Srpske, Nenad Nesic, has a luxury Skoda Superb, worth a bit over 30,000 euros.

Nesic is a candidate for the state parliament from the Democratic People’s Alliance, a coalition alley of Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD.

In 2018, this company bought two more cars, a Skoda Superb and a Hyundai Tucson, and 16 others vehicles, bringing its fleet up to a total of 44 passenger vehicles.

The BIRN database, containing a register of vehicles owned by institutions and public companies, and showing their average cost – around 25,000 euros – can be seen here.

Read more:

Bosnian Officials Spend 4.5 Million Euros on Vehicles

Bosnian Serbs to Protest Over Officials’ Luxury Limos

Bosnia elections 2018 

In the first six months of the year, around 4.5 million euros was spent on vehicles for government officials, institutions and public companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to BIRN Bosnia’s new database.

Of this sum, 1.5 million euros were spent on cars, some of them luxury models. The other three million euros were spent on vehicles like fire trucks, ambulances and SUVs.

A total of 292 tenders were issued to purchase the vehicles, but in more than 70 per cent of the tenders that were fulfilled, only one company applied, the database shows.

Bosnian government institutions and public companies published tenders to purchase 563 vehicles during the six-month period, around half of which were passenger vehicles and SUVs.

So far, 106 tenders have been fulfilled to buy 213 cars – 128 of them new and 38 secondhand, and in the other cases details have not been made public.

The most expensive vehicle purchased in the first six months was for the medical faculty of the Mostar University, in a tender worth 50,000 euros.

Mostar medical faculty dean Milenko Bevanda first issued the tender in late 2017, but annulled it after receiving BIRN’s request for a comment about the purchase.

But in spring this year, Bevanda repeated the tender and bought a new vehicle worth 42,300 euros without taxes from the MRM company in Ljubuski.

BIRN’s database shows that in the first six months of this year, MRM won the most valuable tenders, worth over 375,000 euros.

Porsche BH from Sarajevo won the most tenders, valued at a total of 285,000 euros.

Of the 292 issued tenders in the database, BIRN marked 26 tenders in which the requested specifics of the vehicle are so detailed that they can limit competition or suggest a preferred manufacturer, which is against the country’s public procurement law.

In six tenders, the final value of the tender or purchase exceeded the amount which was planned.

The Bosnian Serb Interior ministry bought six used vehicles for more than 10,000 euros more than the estimated amount.

In the rest of the tenders, the demanded specifics of the vehicle suggest or sometimes directly state a particular model or manufacturer, which is against the public procurement law.

BIRN Bosnia published an analysis in December showing that around five million euros was spent on vehicles in 2017.

After BIRN’s reports about violations of public procurement practices, several institutions amended their tender specifications.

The database also contains a register for vehicles already owned by institutions and public companies, which shows that the average cost of a vehicle is around 25,000 euros.

The Bosnian presidency and the two entity presidents own a total of 54 cars, worth around 1.7 million euros.

The database can be seen here (Bosnian language only).

Read more:

Bosnian Serbs to Protest Over Officials’ Luxury Limos