Hamdija Lipovača finally convicted of crime, must return almost 50 thousand KM

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The Cantonal Court in Bihać, with its verdict, confirmed the first-instance verdict of the Municipal Court in Bosanska Krupa, which imposed a suspended sentence on the former mayor of the municipality of Bihać, Lipovača Hamdija (born 1976) from Bihać, for negligent work in office, sentencing him to one year in prison, and simultaneously stipulating that the sentence will not be executed if the accused does not commit a new criminal offense within two years from the date the verdict becomes final.

The Cantonal Court in Bihać also accepted the appeal of the injured party, the City of Bihać, and amended the first-instance verdict by obliging the convicted Lipovača to pay 48,944.65 KM to the City of Bihać as compensation for damages.

We remind you that on June 20, 2019, the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of the Una-Sana Canton filed an indictment against Lipovača Hamdija, accusing him of acting in clear disregard of the law as an official in the Federation, resulting in property damage exceeding 10,000.00 KM. Specifically, Lipovača was accused of, on January 7, 2009, in Bihać, as an official in the capacity of mayor of the municipality of Bihać, contrary to the provisions of the Law on Public Procurement of Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting in clear disregard of his duties in that position by, without a prior public procurement procedure that would have ensured the Municipality of Bihać prepared tender documentation based on which it could ascertain facts about the legal and business entity of the future business partner, facts about the organizational and technical capabilities of the future business partner for the preparation of a feasibility study on the water resources of the Municipality of Bihać, facts about the possibility of executing the said service, and which procedure would ensure that the bidder submits a guarantee for the submitted bid, for the seriousness of the bid, for the execution of the work or for the fulfillment of contractual obligations, without previously securing and determining the aforementioned in any other way, and without ensuring any guarantees that the service paid for by the Municipality of Bihać would be performed, and without ensuring that the contract precisely specifies the obligations of the other contracting party regarding the deadlines for the execution of the ordered work, the manner of investing funds by the other contracting party, and the like, on behalf of the Municipality of Bihać, aware of all the omissions made above, concluded an agreement with the company Kentrik Europe B.V. for the preparation of a feasibility study on the water resources of the Municipality of Bihać, and on the same day, based on the payment of the obligation undertaken by the said agreement, issued a decision on the transfer of funds based on which the accounting department carried out the payment of funds in the amount of 48,944.65 KM, for which payment the Municipality of Bihać never received adequate consideration, and to which consequence he agreed, thereby damaging the Municipality of Bihać for the amount of 48,944.65 KM.

The parties have no right to appeal this verdict.