European Public Prosecutor's Office officially announces: Three employees of the Motorways of the Federation suspected of international crime!

(Patria) - “The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Venice (Italy) has formally named six individuals as suspects, including three Bosnian public officials, in connection with alleged cross-border corruption in the construction project of the Pan-European Motorway Corridor, which connects Hungary and eastern Croatia with Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea,” the Office of the European Prosecutor in Venice announced on Monday.

The investigation, as stated in the announcement, concerns the 35-kilometer section between Medakovo and Poprikuše, i.e., part of a consultancy project worth 4 million euros within the broader motorway construction worth 340 million euros.

“The entire project is financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) with 87%, and the national budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the remaining 13%. The investigation was launched after the EIB reported to the EPPO suspicions of manipulation in the procurement process for consultancy services related to the motorway, allegedly favoring an Italian company based in Verona,” the announcement stated.

The investigation, conducted by the Carabinieri in Venice, revealed that three public officials of the Bosnian contracting body allegedly took coordinated actions to secure the contract for the Italian company. The officials are suspected of replacing the evaluation committee, reworking the technical evaluation report, and ordering the company to adjust its financial proposal to obtain the highest ranking. This was allegedly done in exchange for financial and other benefits.

“In September 2024, searches of the offices and premises of the Italian suspects were conducted to collect evidence. In 2025, close cooperation with the competent judicial and law enforcement authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina enabled additional hearings and other investigative measures in Sarajevo, coordinated with the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA). Recently, the Bosnian suspects were informed of the charges against them and their procedural rights. In November 2023, the EPPO and the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (POBIH) concluded a working agreement to facilitate cooperation and information exchange,” the announcement stated, noting that “all individuals involved are considered innocent until proven guilty before the competent Italian courts.”

Istraga.ba, we recall, reported last week that the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Venice sent a notification to the leaders of the Public Company Motorways 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, Istraga sedmice Hayat TV learns. Under investigation are the General Director of the Motorways Public Company Denis Lasić, Executive Director of Motorways Asmir Dževlan, Consultant at Motorways Erdal Trhulj, and Procurement Officer Katica Vranjković. According to information from Istraga, in April 2023, a public procurement procedure was conducted – “supervision of works execution on the Ozimice-Poprikuše subsection.” The company Technical SpA from Italy applied for this tender on April 14, 2023. Since the Italians did not have a representative office, the bid was submitted via 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 the Motorways Public Company (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 May 17, 2023. The new management continued 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 arranged with the Italians how to “improve” their bid. According to the ongoing investigation by European prosecutors, who 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 Motorways management “identified an arithmetic error in the calculation” of the original financial bid. After recalculation, the new management assessed 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 Motorways Management had swapped the bids. Instead of the original 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 the Motorways Public Company of 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 bid preparation. The case was reported to the financier (EIB), and we submitted the complete documentation, as well as a scan of the bid submitted to Motorways, 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 European Public Prosecutor's Office 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 the representative of the Italian company, there is reasonable suspicion that: Denis Lasić, General Director of the Motorways Public Company of FBiH, Asmir Dževlan, Director of the Construction Sector, Katica Vranjković, Head of the Procurement Service, and Erdal Trhulj, Consultant on numerous projects at Motorways of 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 submitted documentation, it was agreed that, with the payment of a financial benefit in the amount of approximately 125,000 euros, the replacement of financial bids in favor of the Italian company would be ensured,” stated in the documentation held by the European prosecutor, Istraga writes.