Kešo questions Forto: Are you paying for the ministerial position with the controversial 25 million KM tender for RTV service digitalization?

(Patria) - SDA MP Safet Kešo spoke out today after the Minister of Transport and Communications Edin Forto signed an addendum to the contract for the digitalization of public RTV services last week, as announced by the Ministry, Nimbus Innovations d.o.o. Banja Luka continues to participate in the consortium, having taken over all rights, assets, and obligations of Sirius 2010, which was placed on the sanctions list by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Kešo believes that by signing the addendum to the contract for the digitalization of public RTV services in BiH, Forto has shown that he will not abandon his intention to complete the legally highly controversial tender procedure, through which the contract worth over 25 million KM was awarded to the company (from the US blacklist!) SIRIUS 2010, linked to Milorad Dodik, and together with it, to a company owned by the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

"Despite the tender procedure tailored to the consortium consisting of Sirius 2010 d.o.o. Banja Luka and Odašiljači i veze d.o.o. Zagreb, which was pointed out by representatives of the professional community, NGOs, and the media, and after the public admission from Our Party that they knew that the company Sirius, as the consortium leader, was linked to Dodik, Forto rushed to award the contract (always read: money) to these companies immediately at the beginning of his term.

After Sirius withdrew from the project due to US sanctions and the closure of its business accounts, Forto, instead of annulling the signed contract and re-running the tender procedure, signed an addendum to the contract, transferring the entire job to a company owned by the Government of the Republic of Croatia, which was not even the consortium leader because, according to available information, it did not meet the conditions for it. This Zagreb-based company, which magically transformed from a member status to a consortium leader status, is called "Odašiljači i veze d.o.o.", and given this latest Forto's legal-tender acrobatics worth 25.8 million KM, which truly deserves the special attention of the Prosecutor's Office, it could very easily turn into the case of "CONNECTIONS and transmitters"!

Forto owes the public, and especially the Prosecutor's Office, an explanation as to why he initially awarded the contract worth over 25 million KM to a company he knew was linked to Milorad Dodik, despite numerous shortcomings in the tender procedure that the public clearly pointed out, and why he has now decided to redirect the money of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to a company of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, which was its partner in this story," stated Kešo.

He adds that it would be interesting to find out how the company Nimbus Innovations d.o.o. so elegantly, with such ease and without any consequences, took over "all rights, assets, and obligations of Sirius 2010, which was placed on the sanctions list by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)."

"Since all of that has been taken over (including this 25.8 million KM job!), it would be interesting to know if reputation, status, etc., were also taken over in this case?! Or perhaps not, because for Nimbus, without some procedure lost in the fears and dilemmas of Forto's chefs of this story, the status of consortium leader was lost!! So how can the status of consortium leader be lost for some and gained for others without a special procedure or a new procedure, and yet the money for these subjects in all possible and impossible combinations does not disappear anywhere!? Someone has clearly decided, very firmly and unwaveringly, to give it to them!

It is therefore entirely justified that the question arises in public whether, by completing the procedure initiated by the previous minister from SNSD, Forto has now "paid" for his ministerial chair, which was agreed upon at a secret meeting in Jahorina with Dodik!? Or perhaps he gained personal financial benefit!?

I hereby call on the competent judicial institutions to urgently investigate the legality of the entire procedure, to annul the contract, and to sanction those responsible for all irregularities in the procedure," concluded Kešo.