Reports to FUP and SIPA: Local power brokers leaving Livno villages without water!

LIVNO, (Patria) - Six villages near Livno, below Mount Tušnica, as well as villages supplied by the nearby Pašinac spring, which is currently undergoing reconstruction with funds from the local community and the City of Livno, could be left without drinking water after a private company began drilling boreholes in the Poljane area.

Previous practice shows that when similar drilling is carried out at a water source site, there is a risk of losing existing springs due to groundwater flowing into the newly constructed borehole.

The construction site is not properly marked, making it practically impossible to clearly identify the contractor without information about the investor's ultimate intentions. Local residents recognize that the work at the water source is being carried out by a Macedonian company, which is why the Service for Foreigners' Affairs has been asked to provide information on whether Macedonian citizens have been issued residence permits in the Livno area.

All that can be learned about the entire project so far is that the concession for the water source below Mount Tušnica was previously held by the company Dže-Co d.o.o. Livno, represented by director Branko Džeko. The company initiated bankruptcy proceedings at the beginning of 2016, and the concession right for that water source was transferred to "Lara Natural" d.o.o. The transfer of the concession right was confirmed by the Government of Canton 10 in October 2018. Furthermore, it is unclear how the concession right was terminated, as the original concessionaire should have had its concession revoked due to entering bankruptcy proceedings. This is explicitly stated by the Concessions Law, which has been violated in this case.

The case has been reported to the Federal Police Administration (FUP) and the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA). The report stated, among other things, that machines from the public company "Li-Čistoća" are being used to prepare access roads to the boreholes, that "the works are being carried out illegally," and that "the transfer of the concession right was done outside the law."

"On August 31, 2019, Ivica Krivić, director of the public company 'Li-Čistoća', and Mate Šiško, an employee of the Ministry of Economy in Canton 10, came to the site of the Pašinac spring in Livno, in the hamlet of Krivića Gaj (the location from which the concession area is most easily accessed), followed by a illegally transported bulldozer owned by the city company 'Li-Čistoća', and began building a road on land that is part of the forest base of the economic unit Šumarija Livno. In a short period, the bulldozer destroyed vegetation around the spring and built a road about three hundred meters long (destruction of public property and violation of the Forest Law, as forest land was not reclassified as required by the Forest Law)."

"The Concessions Law of Canton 10 explicitly states that the concession relationship ceases upon the opening of bankruptcy proceedings against the concessionaire. In the case of Dže-Co d.o.o., the law was not respected. The concession right was simply transferred to another legal entity."

Residents have currently blocked the road and are not allowing further work.