Ministarstvo saobraćaja i veza RS nastavlja ignorisati sudske odluke, uprkos četvrtoj presudi u korist TI BiH

(Patria) - The District Court in Banja Luka has upheld the fourth lawsuit filed by Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) against the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republika Srpska, once again ordering the Ministry to clearly explain why the Concession Agreement for the Banja Luka–Prijedor highway was declared an exception from publication.

The ruling emphasized that the Ministry protected the commercial interests of the Chinese investor instead of the public interest, without conducting a public interest test or specifying concrete business losses that would have resulted from the disclosure of information from the Financial Model, thereby incorrectly applying the Law on Freedom of Access to Information.

According to the Court's opinion, even if the commercial interests of the Chinese company were threatened, the Ministry was obliged to assess whether the disclosure of information from the Agreement concerning the method of financing construction and the estimated profit from toll collection on this highway would bring greater benefit to society and the public interest, compared to protecting the confidential commercial interests of the concessionaire.

Despite clear legal obligations and four court decisions, the Ministry continues to deny access to key information from the Agreement for the construction of the Banja Luka–Prijedor highway, citing blanket claims of business secrecy.

In addition to these violations, the Ministry's decision also denied the right to appeal, thereby violating not only the Law on Freedom of Access to Information but also the Law on Administrative Procedure and the Constitution of the Republika Srpska, which guarantee the right to file an appeal. TI BiH reminds that in this case, the Institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman also issued a recommendation in 2022, ordering the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the RS to act upon the filed appeal.

Since 2021, TI BiH has been trying to obtain information on all essential elements of the contract for the construction of one of the most important infrastructure projects, for which there is a clear public interest, due to suspicions that this deal was concluded under terms detrimental to the Republika Srpska.

In this specific case, TI BiH has not exercised its right to access information, despite the fact that four administrative disputes have been concluded in its favor and all Ministry decisions have been annulled. The Court was asked to notify the Republic Administrative Inspection due to the Ministry's continuous failure to comply with the judgments, and for the Court to resolve the matter itself; however, the Court refused to do so, even though it is evident that the Ministry is abusing its procedural powers to the detriment of TI BiH.