Reject the Rulebook on Police Uniforms that Favors Import Lobbies

(Patria) - The Council of Ministers of BiH, at its session scheduled for Monday, will once again consider the Rulebook on Police Uniforms, which prevents domestic uniform manufacturers from participating in public procurement, and openly favors import lobbies at the expense of domestic production, it was announced from the BH Consortium of Military and Police Uniform Manufacturers.

The BH Consortium, which includes MEN d.o.o. Travnik, Koteks d.o.o. Tešanj, ZENKO d.o.o. Zenica, Textile Industry d.o.o. Mostar, Uslužnost d.o.o. Sarajevo, Sparta d.o.o. Banja Luka, Miltex d.o.o Banja Luka, K.L.M. Prnjavor and Belt d.o.o. Banja Luka, states that they have been asking the Council of Ministers of BiH for almost a year to meet with them to point out the disastrous consequences of the proposed Rulebook.

“The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of BiH, as well as the Chamber of Commerce of FBiH and RS, are asking the same from the Council of Ministers of BiH. Despite numerous requests, no serious discussions have taken place yet. This does not prevent the Minister of Security of BiH, Dragan Mektić, from misleading his colleagues in the Council of Ministers and the public of BiH with the claim that he has reached an agreement with domestic manufacturers. In this regard, we emphasize that there is no agreement,” the consortium announced on Sunday.

“The proposed rulebook continues to favor the procurement of only one type of uniform, which is imported into BiH from Far Eastern countries. All other manufacturers are eliminated from the procurement process by a series of provisions in the Rulebook, and we are being forced to copy the '5.11' type uniform, which is a criminal offense and which we can neither do nor want to do. Therefore, we once again appeal to the Council of Ministers of BiH not to accept such a Rulebook, and to definitively reject it,” the appeal states.

The BH Consortium of Military and Police Uniform Manufacturers calls for the joint definition of the quality and appearance of uniforms in cooperation with the chambers of commerce, in a way that no manufacturer is discriminated against or favored, and that BiH police officers are provided with the highest quality possible uniforms and accompanying equipment.

“Members of the BH Consortium export their products throughout the EU and our products meet all the necessary standards. It is absurd that the Council of Ministers of BiH, with its decision, practically forbids domestic manufacturers from supplying BiH police agencies, while at the same time our uniforms are used by police officers in Austria or Switzerland!

We remind the Council of Ministers and the public in BiH once again that this would further burden the budget of BiH with multi-million dollar allocations for these needs, because there would be no competition in the public procurement process.

This would result in a huge amount of BiH citizens' money flowing into the hands of a few importers, while at the same time endangering hundreds of jobs in domestic production.

We expect the Council of Ministers not to be in the service of import lobbies but of its citizens,” the conclusion of the statement reads, Patria reports.