AFTER OFAC SANCTIONS: Forto requested clarification from the Consortium and Sirius 2010 on whether they can realize the digitalization project

(Patria) - Edin Forto, Minister of Communications and Transport of BiH, welcomed the activities of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC) aimed at preventing violations or activities that pose a threat to the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, and particularly in order to prevent corrupt practices.

Among the total of seven companies from BiH that were added to OFAC's list of sanctioned entities yesterday is Sirius 2010 - the leader of the Consortium selected through an international tender for the implementation of the second phase of RTV signal digitalization, with a value of 25.8 million KM excluding VAT.

Given the new circumstances, Minister Forto has instructed the Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of the Digitalization Project to obtain a statement from the Consortium on whether, in accordance with the signed Agreement, it is capable of fulfilling the general and specific conditions of the tender documentation, and to prepare a comprehensive report on the project's implementation. The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be informed about the details of this report, along with the opinions of relevant institutions.

The Agreement with the Consortium, consisting of Sirius 2010 from Banja Luka and Odašiljači i veze from Zagreb, was signed in January of this year based on a tender announced in the mandate of the previous Council of Ministers of BiH in mid-2022, which received only two bids.

At the proposal of the Commission for Public Procurement for Digital Transmission and Broadcasting, a Decision was made in July last year on the sole qualified bidder - the Consortium led by Sirius 2010.

After the final acts were issued by the BiH Office for the Consideration of Appeals and the BiH Court, and based on the positive opinion of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, the agreement with the Consortium led by Sirius 2010 was signed.

A previous attempt to implement public procurement for RTV signal digitalization failed in 2017 when no qualified bids were received for the public call.

By signing the Geneva Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina undertook the obligation to shut down the analog television signal by June 2015 and is currently the only country in Europe that has not completed the RTV signal digitalization process.