Damage from the fire at the Municipality of Centar building is almost 3.8 million KM

The Municipal Council, at this session, adopted the Decision on damages caused by the fire on February 7, 2014, to the Municipality of Centar Sarajevo building at Mis Irbina street number 1 and accounting for the damages, along with the Report on determined damages after the fire, reports the Patria News Agency. 

The reason for adopting this decision is the obligation to determine the amount of damages after declaring a state of natural disaster caused by the fire in parts of the Centar municipality, as well as determining the method of harmonizing the Municipality's accounting records for the incurred damages, and continuing the procedure for determining and collecting damages from "Sarajevo osiguranje" d.d. Sarajevo. The adopted decision tasks the Legal Department of the Municipality of Centar to continue the procedure for determining and collecting damages from the aforementioned insurance company.

According to the adopted report of the Commission for assessing damages from natural and other disasters, the damage to the Municipality's building, equipment (excluding artworks), and other property is estimated at 3,798,795.73 KM, with damages to the building (based on court expert assessments) amounting to 3,514,295.15 KM, to fixed assets and equipment 159,427.32 KM, and the remainder of the total damage amount relates to small inventory and office supplies.

According to Fahrudin Kurtović, Assistant Head of the Department for Economy and Finance, this is not yet the final amount because intangible damages (completely destroyed documents) and artworks, whose value needs to be assessed, are not included.

To remind, on February 7, 2014, during citizen protests and riots, the Municipality of Centar building, whose premises are also used by the Sarajevo Canton, was set on fire and devastated. Fortunately, there were no human casualties, but enormous material damage was caused. Upon the proposal of the Civil Protection Staff of the Municipality of Centar, the municipal mayor adopted the Decision on declaring a state of disaster caused by fire in parts of the Centar municipality on February 8, 2014. Work began immediately, day and night, on clearing the burnt site inside and around the Municipality building, removing burnt structures from all floors and the roof, where a new roof structure was quickly installed. Subsequently, work continued on the emergency renovation project of the building, with the consent of the Commission for the Preservation of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the building is under state protection.

Thanks to exceptional efforts, only seven days after the fire, the counter hall of the Civil Registry Office was reopened, followed soon by the large hall where Municipal Council sessions are held. All other municipal services were temporarily relocated to other locations where they began functioning at full capacity in the shortest possible time and where they operated until their return to the municipal building after renovation.

-Last year, 3.2 million KM was allocated from the budget of the Municipality of Centar for the renovation of the building, and all works are not yet completed - said Fahrudin Kurtović, it was announced from the Municipality of Centar.