PUBLIC PROCUREMENT Green offensive on CNG drive: Will GRAS explode!?

By: Rasim BELKO

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Although the KS Assembly approved the agreement between GRAS and the cantonal government, which should be a salvation for this company, it will not happen until suspicious procurement of vehicles and parts in this company are eliminated.

The golden goose of "Sarajevo" political sharks, dangerous to public property, is once again under attack by those who see GRAS as a treasure chest from which money is withdrawn as needed.

Agreements on the procurement of buses that preceded the agreement indicate that the old practice could continue.

Where the former minister Mujo Fišo, who was indicted, stopped, the current Minister of Transport, Adi Kalem, could continue. From well-informed sources close to GRAS, as well as the KS Government, information is coming that they want to procure used buses with CNG gas again, which in GRAS, according to invoices from January this year, costs 1.87 marks per kilogram.

More expensive than diesel at the pumps.

It would be difficult to find all the SDA cadres with a magnifying glass who procured something for GRAS in the past decades, and remained empty-handed. Companies, scandals, court proceedings have sprung up from the money from GRAS procurements.

And GRAS sank into a quagmire from which the KS Government now has to pull it out with the money of all taxpayers.

Minister Kalem, who promised to give a statement, did not respond to us anymore. We wanted to talk to him about a possible donation of CNG vehicles from Turkey that would be sold to GRAS through some intermediary. That would be a winning combination for everyone involved in the procurement. SDA cadres consider "transparency" only when they boast in party circles about how much they have acquired for themselves and the party.

Praise be to God, they have the means. We only hope that Kalem was not a warrior and wounded, because it is time for those responsible to start answering for what they are doing in GRAS.

We will not claim that he is involved in something, but public procurement and GRAS - a too familiar story, isn't it?

From the Ministry of Transport, they justified themselves at informal meetings that the procurement of vehicles with CNG gas is being pushed by the Minister of Communal Economy, Nihada Glamoč. Allegedly, this would justify the questionable justification of Sarajevogas's investment in building a gas station at a time when Glamoč was the director. Allegedly, Sarajevogas would also help in the procurement of buses.

Unlike Kalem, the minister was willing to talk. "Believe me, I have never discussed that with anyone. There is no basis for Sarajevogas to participate in the procurement of vehicles for GRAS, there are more important problems there. As for the station, I do not agree that it is a questionable investment, which can also be verified," Glamoč told us.

The former Minister of Communal Economy, Srđan Mandić, is also cautious with his assessment.

"I cannot claim that it is a failed investment. The government I was a member of found this project and we could not influence its implementation. If we could, there would certainly have been revisions," says Mandić.

According to him, the Ministry of Transport should deal with the procurement of vehicles, and as far as he knows, the current minister inherited a lot that was already prepared, with the focus being on the procurement of trolleybuses and the improvement of tram traffic.

Mandić's statement clearly implies that trolleybus and tram traffic are being bypassed in procurements, even though in practice it is the lifeline of public transport in the Sarajevo Canton. Our trams are older than children born during the Olympic Games. Buses are needed, but malversations are not.

We could not reach the director of GRAS, Almir Ahmetspahić, due to obligations related to the preparation of the agreement with the KS Government, but we received information that for now, only the arrival of one electric bus is possible. The procurement would be realized through the City of Sarajevo, which has an interest in testing the use of such a vehicle.

For now, GRAS and the KS Government are only testing the patience of citizens, as well as the capacity of competent institutions to prosecute crime. This brings us back to the possible procurement of CNG buses. GRAS needs them to justify the contract for filling CNG at an expensive price.

Invoices from January this year show that between 20 and 25 thousand marks are spent in 10 days. In this company, you cannot get an exact figure on how many buses with this gas are on the street. We received information that only three or four are in working order.

"Well, they drive and break down. Two were towed over the weekend. Now I think we have ten of them driving," one of the employees told us, asking to remain anonymous.

The closer you get to management, the higher the figure, so they will tell you that at least 15 are in circulation.

Let us remind you, a criminal proceeding is underway in the Tuzla court regarding the procurement of 32 buses powered by CNG gas, in which the GRAS trade union also participated.

GRAS also has buses running on LPG, but it seems that some individuals do not like the fact that it is much cheaper, and the competition of suppliers is greater.

LPG was not being dispensed at the time of writing this report because the supplier's bills were not paid.

Criminal charges always herald that something is brewing in GRAS.

At the beginning of September, the BiH Prosecutor's Office informed the GRAS Drivers' Union that it was not competent to conduct an investigation into the report of a group of workers due to suspicions of malversations with public procurements.

It was also stated that the case is being transferred to the KS Prosecutor's Office.

Those well-informed about how GRAS functions say that the reports are used as part of an internal war over positions from which public procurements can be influenced.

Behind this, allegedly, is a part of the former management structures of GRAS, which advanced the procurement of spare parts from a Slovenian company that soon after went bankrupt. The money was not returned, nor were the parts delivered. At that time, buses from Serbia were also bought for cash.

And where there is cash, there are also the long arms of political and management structures. Public procurement has long been a means of enrichment for individuals. In a situation where our judiciary is in party headquarters, and prosecutors are on payrolls, only citizens, GRAS employees, and the Sarajevo public can stop the green offensive on CNG drive.

Otherwise, GRAS will explode!