From the Municipality of Pale Chief to the Friendly Company “Stanišić” Ltd. – 400,000 KM for Preparatory Works on the Auxiliary Stadium of FK “Romanija”

The mayor of Pale Municipality, Boško Jugović, the president of the Football Association of Republika Srpska, Vico Zeljković, and the president of Football Club “Romanija”, Marko Blagojević, signed a contract in May of last year for the construction and installation of a field with an artificial surface in this local community.

Jugović told reporters that the Pale Municipality provided and acquired the land for the stadium’s construction, allocating 650,000 KM for this purpose, and will finance all preparatory works amounting to over 400,000 KM. The artificial surface, overseen by the Football Association of Republika Srpska, will cost 500,000 KM.

“This will complete the investment cycle, demonstrating how much importance we place on sports and youth, as we want them to engage in healthy activities and dedicate their free time to sports and recreation. The construction of an auxiliary field with artificial turf will facilitate the work for all categories”, stated Jugović, as reported by SRNA.

Highlighting their concern for sports and youth, it is shown that the funds of the same youth, athletes, and citizens of Pale will be allocated to the company “Stanišić” Ltd., closely related to the national parliament member and the director of “Elektrodistribucija” Pale, Aco Stanišić, who has family ties with Pale Municipality’s mayor, Boško Jugović.

In response to the tender announced by Pale Municipality, two acceptable offers were received, and the one offered by the company “Stanišić” Ltd. was selected.

Preparing the field for the construction of the artificial surface will cost the citizens of Pale 393,066 KM without VAT, or 459,890 KM with VAT.

Regarding constructing the auxiliary stadium and acquiring land for its needs, the Pale Municipality does not respond to our questions or hold press conferences, and statements can only be obtained from selected media outlets.

Undermining Public Procurements

Construction experts that visited on-site wondered why so much money is allocated for preparatory works, and who conducted the assessment, given that some auxiliary stadiums have been fully built for the same amount.

Has this led to the senseless nature of public competitions, and possibly violated the Law on Conflict of Interest, due to the “concealing” of the actual company owner? We asked Damjan Ožegović from Transparency International.

“Every contracting authority has an obligation to conduct prior market research for the purpose of preparing a public procurement procedure, and this is one of the foundations for determining the estimated value. The essence of public competition is to reduce this price to the lowest offered during the competition, and to obtain the highest quality goods, works, or services for the least amount of money. However, this is not common in our case, and there is a relatively small number of submitted bids in public procurement procedures”, says Ožegović for SPIN Info.

Regarding conflicts of interest, he adds that the new amendments to the Law on Public Procurement envisage a certain degree of regulation in this area.

“What I would particularly emphasize as a problem in determining a potential conflict of interest is the concealment of actual ownership. The Law on Public Procurement, with its new amendments from the end of last year, envisages disqualification from the procedure based on a conflict of interest and defines situations that can lead to this, broadening the circle of individuals to include related persons of the representatives of the contracting authority. According to these provisions, representatives and relatives cannot hold managerial positions in the economic entity, i.e., the bidder, and cannot own more than 0.5% of the capital in that entity. However, the concealment of actual ownership has proven to be a hindering factor in effectively preventing such situations”, Ožegović emphasizes.

And the data below show who the owner of the mentioned company was.

Almost Half a Million for “Stanišić” for an Auxiliary Stadium, and That’s Not All

SPIN Info has written multiple times about the connections and collaboration between Pale Municipality and “Stanišić” Ltd., as have other media outlets. An article in Žurnal from April of this year titled “Pale, a Municipality for Two Families: A Seat for Jugović, Public Works for Stanišić” states that “Stanišić” Ltd. is the main supplier for the municipality with 84 tender contracts and a total of 3,509,975 KM with VAT, which is how much this company has received solely from Pale Municipality.

The fruitful collaboration continues.

Considering that Pale Municipality boasts about paving streets in the 21st century, for these purposes, in just one month, in May of this year, “Stanišić” Ltd. received 641,941 KM without VAT or 751,070 KM with VAT.

Thus, in the meantime, the figure has grown to around four million marks.

Auxiliary Stadium for FK “Slavija” Cost 570,000 Marks

Three years ago, the city of Istočno Sarajevo financed the construction of the auxiliary stadium for FK “Slavija” in the municipality of Istočno Novo Sarajevo. Approximately 300,000 marks were allocated for the construction from the city and the municipality of Istočno Novo Sarajevo. UEFA funded the artificial turf with 250,000 marks, so the complete construction of the auxiliary stadium cost a little over 550,000 marks.

For the artificial turf on the auxiliary stadium of FK “Romanija”, which is planned to be built, the Football Association of Republika Srpska, led by Vico Zeljković, will take care of it. They will allocate twice as much money as the installation of artificial turf cost three years ago. The president of the Football Association of Republika Srpska stated that as part of the project “Construction of Fields with Artificial Surface in Republika Srpska”, the Football Association of Republika Srpska will provide financial resources and conduct procurement procedures for the works, amounting to 500,000 KM.

The reconstruction of auxiliary facilities around the stadium is also underway, which surely requires additional funds.

The collaboration between SNSD’s mayor Boško Jugović and his cousin Milorad Dodik’s nephew Vice Zeljković is to be expected. The properties and wealth of the president of the Football Association of Republika Srpska and the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina were recently covered by the Valter portal, stating that stadiums in Bosnia and Herzegovina are deteriorating while the number of properties owned by the president is increasing.

Meanwhile, since 2009, the people of Pale have been waiting for the construction of an auxiliary stadium for the local club FK “Romanija” and proper conditions for athletes in this municipality. Even back then, there was talk of constructing an auxiliary stadium with a project in place. However, the construction of a hall started on the auxiliary field of Romanija, accompanied by numerous irregularities. Members of the FK “Romanija” assembly once claimed that the football club never received a single mark for the expropriation of the field.