European investigation against Autoceste leaders: Lasić, Dževlan and Trhulj swapped bids and abused investment banks

The Office of the European Public Prosecutor in Venice has sent a notice to the leaders of the Public Company Autoceste of the Federation of BiH that they are under investigation on suspicion of corruption and non-transparent spending of money from European funds during the construction of the Medakovo-Poprikuše and Ozimice-Poprikuše motorway sections, according to the Investigation of the Week by Hayat TV. Under investigation are the General Director of JP Autoceste Denis Lasić, Executive Director of Autoceste Asmir Dževlan, consultant at Autoceste Erdal Trhulj, and procurement officer Katica Vranjković.




Here is what it is about. In April 2023, a public procurement procedure was conducted – “supervision of works execution on the sub-section Ozimice-Poprikuše”. On 14 April 2023, the company Technical SpA from Italy applied for this tender. Since the Italians did not have a representative office, the bid was submitted through the company Trasa d.o.o. Sarajevo. A month later, the new Government of the Federation of BiH, led by Nermin Nikšić, replaced the management of JP Autoceste (Elmedin Voloder), and Denis Lasić, a HDZ cadre, was appointed director. Asmir Dževlan was appointed Executive Director for Design and Construction as a joint cadre of SDP, NiP, Muhamed Ajanović and the Čampara family. The new management took office on 17 May 2023. The new management continued to conduct the tender procedure for this job. The bid of the Italian Technital was 4.6 million euros. According to that bid, the Italians were ranked second.

However, in a catering facility in East Sarajevo, Dževlan, Lasić and Trhulj agreed with the Italians on how to “improve” their bid. According to the ongoing investigation by European prosecutors, who have conducted several hearings at SIPA, it was agreed that the Italians would set aside 150,000 euros in bribes for this operation. Then, during the final evaluation of bids, the Autoceste management “identified an arithmetic error in the calculation” of the original financial bid. After recalculation, the new management estimated that, due to the calculation error, Technital's bid amounted to 4.06 million euros, not 4.6 million euros. Due to the price difference, reduced by 582,000 euros, the Italian Technital became the top-ranked bidder. However, representatives of the intermediary company Trasa conducted an additional evaluation of the original bid and determined that, in fact, the Autoceste Management had swapped the bids. Instead of the original bid of 4.6 million euros, they inserted a lower bid of 4.06 million euros.

“Given the established facts and reasonable suspicion that the financial bid was swapped in the premises of JP Autoceste FBiH, and fearing that we do not want to be participants in this criminal act, we hired a lawyer and submitted all documentation that accompanied the preparation of the bid. The case was reported to the financier (EIB), and we submitted all documentation, as well as a scan of the bid submitted to Autoceste, to the financier (EIB),” stated in the report submitted to SIPA and judicial institutions in BiH by the leaders of the company Trasa.

Since these are EU funds, EIB officials informed the Office of the European Public Prosecutor about everything. As the company that attempted to participate in the corruption is from Italy, the case was assigned to the Office in Venice.

“Based on collected evidence, documentation and witness statements, including the statement of a representative of the Italian company, there is reasonable suspicion that: Denis Lasić, General Director of JP Autoceste FBiH, Asmir Dževlan, Director of the Construction Sector, Katica Vranjković, Head of the Procurement Department, and Erdal Trhulj, consultant on numerous projects at AC FBiH, acting jointly with representatives of the Italian company, with the intention of influencing the outcome of the public procurement procedure, organized a meeting in the area of East Sarajevo. During that meeting, according to witness statements and attached documentation, it was agreed that, with the payment of a monetary benefit in the amount of approximately 125,000 euros, the swapping of financial bids in favor of the Italian company would be ensured,” stated in the documentation held by the European prosecutor.

According to the document in possession of the Investigation, “The Office of the European Public Prosecutor, Office in Venice” sent a “NOTICE TO THE ACCUSED ABROAD in accordance with Article 169 of the Criminal Procedure Code INFORMATION ON GUARANTEES AND THE RIGHT TO DEFENSE”. The case is being handled by prosecutor, European delegated prosecutor Donata Patricia Costa. The case was initiated in 2024, and investigators from Venice heard witnesses at SIPA premises earlier this year. However, the official notice of the investigation arrived a few days ago.