Forget Krnjić, who is responsible for the bridge collapse?

The case of the new border crossing in Gradiška has become a mirror of how Bosnia and Herzegovina functions: slowly, uncoordinatedly, without accountability, and with constant blame-shifting to individuals, while systemic problems remain unresolved.

The consortium Logistika BiH warns in almost every statement that this is a multi-year problem, lasting at least five years!

However, after the collapse of a part of the old bridge structure in Gradiška and the complete traffic collapse towards the European Union, an impression is being created in the public that the sole person responsible for the months-long non-opening of the new crossing is a member of the Management Board of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, Zijad Krnjić.

Such an interpretation is not only superficial but also dangerous because it conceals the essence of the problem: complete institutional chaos and the absence of strategic state management. Because if it were managed properly, the bridge would not have collapsed.

The new Gradiška Novi Most crossing was completed last year. The infrastructure was built, the facilities equipped, the funds spent, and citizens and businesses were promised quick relief from traffic and more efficient flow of goods towards the European Union. However, the state failed to complete even the basic administrative part of the job, the redistribution of officials and the amendments to regulations necessary for the crossing to function.

Instead of explaining to the public why institutions have not found a compromise for months, responsibility is being personalized and shifted to one person. Krnjić insists that before amending the regulations, the distribution of indirect tax revenues and the multi-year debt to the Federation of BiH should be discussed, but this issue did not arise yesterday. It is a problem that has been ongoing for years, and no government has had the political will to solve it.

Therefore, it is wrong to claim that Krnjić is precisely "to blame" for today's collapse. It is even more disastrous to try to connect the fact that the bridge is collapsing due to neglected infrastructure and years of negligence with voting in the Management Board of the ITA. Bridges do not collapse because of one session or one vote. They collapse due to decades of non-maintenance, underinvestment, and the absence of responsible state policy.

At the same time, the Gradiška case raises a much more serious question: how is it possible for the state to complete a multi-million project without providing the conditions for its operationalization? How is it possible for businessmen to warn for months about huge damages, for the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH to send an appeal for the urgent opening of the crossing, while institutions continue to wage political and administrative wars?

This is not just about one regulation, nor about one member of the Management Board. It is about a system that only functions when a disaster occurs. Only when the bridge collapses, kilometers-long queues form, and the economy begins to suffer millions in losses, do institutions remember that the problem exists.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has been functioning according to the same pattern for years; problems are not solved preventively, but only when they escalate into a crisis. And then the search for a scapegoat begins to hide the fundamental responsibility of all levels of government. Then, in the most primitive way, it is pointed out that Krnjić is a Muslim! So, what kind of explanation is that, instead of the authorities of Republika Srpska telling us who will be arrested for the bridge collapse!

The Gradiška case is therefore not a story about one vote. It is a story about a country where infrastructure projects are hostages of political conflicts, where institutions do not communicate until the system breaks down, and where responsibility is always sought in individuals, never in the mechanisms that have been producing the same chaos for years.