Banja Luka: SIPA arrested former IDDEEA director Siniša Macan

As part of an investigation into multi-million euro abuses and illegalities regarding the selection of a company for the production of personal documents for BiH citizens, SIPA police officers, early this morning, acting on the order of a prosecutor from the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption, located and deprived of liberty in the Banja Luka area the suspect Macan Siniša, born in 1974.

The suspect Macan, former director of the Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange (IDDEEA) of BiH, is suspected of abuse of position and illegalities in the process of selecting the company Muehlbauer for participation in the production of personal documents for citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Through the aforementioned illegalities, the said company was enabled to obtain illegal property gain by securing the said job and by forming and determining the price of documents. The value of the said contract is greater than 100,000.00,00 KM.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH, together with SIPA and partner agencies, conducted a long and thorough investigation of the entire process, and collected evidence of the responsibility of the suspect Macan.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH, together with partner agencies, continues its intensive fight against all forms of corrupt criminal offenses, especially in cases where property gain is based on budget funds for which the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are the injured parties.

With the new rulebook, adopted by the Council of Ministers of BiH in November 2012, when Nikola Špirić was Minister of Finance and Sredoje Nović Minister of Civil Affairs, the price of ID cards was increased to 18, and driver's licenses to 60 marks.

At that time, it was also defined that the competent authorities for issuing documents receive not a single fening from the price of an ID card, while from a driver's license they receive only 20 marks.

This change harmed not only citizens who began paying higher prices for documents, but also entity and cantonal Ministries of Interior. For each issued ID card, they lost 12.6 KM, and for each issued driver's license, 22 marks.

The Minister of Security of BiH, Dragan Mektić, claimed that in 2013 and 2014, the Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska issued over 600,000 personal documents and consequently lost over 10 million marks.

- The Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska was damaged by more than 10 million marks, and recently they took out a loan of 15 million to procure new vehicles and uniforms for the police. For that decision, which cost the MUP RS 10 million marks in the past two years, the ministers of SNSD voted, who today deal with various commissions and other matters as alleged protectors of the interests of Republika Srpska. Every year, due to that decision, the MUP will be left without part of its funds, so the damage will be enormous' - said Minister Mektić at the time, NAP reports. 

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