Criminal complaint filed against Minister Juska and the group that drafted the CEMT permit rulebook

Transporters from the Republic of Srpska have filed a criminal complaint with the BiH Prosecutor's Office against the state Minister of Transport and Communications, Ismir Juska, because he signed the Rulebook on CEMT permits, as well as against members of the working group that prepared this rulebook, the Patria news agency has learned.

The BiH Prosecutor's Office did not want to confirm this information, but Boris Grubešić, spokesperson for the Prosecutor's Office, said that „the BiH Prosecutor's Office cannot provide any comment on the aforementioned query“.

In March of this year, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Srpska officially submitted a letter to the Ministry of Transport with a comment that there is no legal basis for adopting the Rulebook on CEMT permits. The competent legal sector in the state Ministry also stated at the end of 2016 that the proposed rulebook on the distribution of CEMT permits goes beyond the legal framework defined by the Law on International and Inter-Entity Transport.

However, this did not prevent Igor Pejić, secretary of the ministry, and Zoran Andrić, assistant minister for transport, from preparing, within the working group, a rulebook that exclusively serves their interests. And they submitted it to Minister Juska for signature.

By publishing this rulebook, Igor Pejić and Zoran Andrić finally stipulated that only they allocate CEMT permits to transporters. Namely, the previous rulebook prescribed that a Commission be formed within the Ministry to prepare a proposal for the distribution of these permits. However, for the past two years, Andrić alone has been making the distribution of CEMT permits to transporters. The criminal complaint also states that last year, although it was provided for by Article 17 of the then-valid rulebook, the Commission for the distribution of CEMT permits was not even formed in the Ministry. Andrić made the distribution himself.

According to the previously valid rulebook, it was not foreseen to leave 5 percent of CEMT permits in reserve. And this has been done in the last few years, regardless of the fact that there was no basis for such a thing in the regulations. The investigative authorities have been investigating this for a long time. And they cannot determine that there was an abuse. By publishing the new rulebook, the existence of this reserve has been formalized. The remaining 5 percent of CEMT permits will again be allocated by Andrić, together with Pejić, after he himself, or in cooperation with Pejić, distributes the previous 95 percent of CEMT permits.

- Transporters are particularly angry with Andrić because in the last two years he has allocated a large number of CEMT permits to his friend and sponsor Risto Petrić, even though he (i.e., his company "Petrić", Vršani) according to the then-valid rulebook could not even participate in the procedure for the distribution of CEMT permits. Article 25 of the previous rulebook stipulated that a transporter for whom the use of a forged CEMT permit has been established loses the right to participate in the procedure for the allocation of CEMT for a period of the next two years. By a verdict of the Basic Court in Bijeljina dated June 19, 2015, Petrić was finally sentenced to a fine of, imagine, 5,000 KM, all due to the extended criminal offense of document forgery, both in 2011 and 2012 – says our source from the Ministry of Transport and Communications of BiH.

Furthermore, our source adds that „despite the fact that every year he receives the most CEMT permits, this does not prevent Petrić from, every January, very soon after taking over the CEMT permits, also submitting a request for an additional CEMT permit because his drivers regularly lose the CEMT permit or it is stolen from them“.

- And this usually happens around January 9, probably because it is a non-working day so the competent authorities cannot act on the holiday. And Andrić most often granted this request of his sponsor for additional permits – added our source.