Secret contracts in the net of Banja Luka fishermen

The Board of Directors of the Banjaluka Sports Fishing Association terminated the existing contract with the company “Bosna Impex” from Banjaluka at the end of 2021, and signed a new one, without the consent of the Assembly of the Association.

The previous contract between these two legal entities was originally signed in 2013, and two Annex contracts were signed by 2016, and the new contract was signed for a period of 15 years, i.e. until 2036.

It is a business space (catering facility), the former “Jova bar” located in the center of Banja Luka, and a summer garden, which is located next to the building, and the monthly rent is 4,100 KM + VAT, which for the contract period represents about 670,000 KM.

Millions of profit to Jović from subletting other people's property

Only a few months after signing the contract, the owner of the company Bosna Impex, Banja Luka businessman Milutin Jović, subleased this office space to a third party, sports betting company Maxbet, for a price of 14,400 KM per month, according to information from Gerila.

By the way, the previous contract had a term of validity until 2026, it gave the possibility of subletting, and according to its items, the rent price was 3,500 KM per month, plus VAT, and another 3,500 KM was kept as the participation of the mentioned company through the process of construction and adaptation of the building and office space.

According to a simple calculation, Jović will collect approximately 1.68 million marks by subleasing the office space in the next 14 years, and SRD Banjaluka says that the Management Board did not have the consent or the authority to sign a new contract.

“The board of directors of SRD Banja Luka is the administrative body of the association, therefore the executive, but it has taken authority to disrespect other bodies, which are higher than it. The Statute is not respected, there is no rebalancing of the spending plan. I consider the contract that was concluded to be harmful, and it was not presented to the members of the Assembly at all. It was signed in November 2021, and in the report for that mentioned year there is only one sentence, good cooperation with the company Bosna impex. That's all that is said”, a source from SRD Banjaluka told Gerila.

This picture is stated in the report of the Supervisory Board of the Association for the year 2022.

“When it comes to the previous tenant of the office space, Bosna impex, we must state that the Contract OPU 88/2013 with Annex 1 and Annex 2 of the same contract concluded on 30.10.2013. terminated and concluded the new contract on the lease of business premises on November 23, 2021”, the report states, with notes that there are numerous deviations compared to the previous period.

“The Supervisory Board believes that there are certain deviations from the OPU 88/2013 Agreement with Annexes and irregularities in the Agreement, which was concluded on November 23, 2021, which relate to the duration of the lease board, rent and payment terms, termination of the agreement and subleasing premises, which are defined in the new contract for the lease of business premises”, the report adds.

The President of the Supervisory Board, Dušan Jovandić, told Gerila that the Supervisory Board simply stated the factual situation.

“Yes, that is our report. We were given the task as the Supervisory Board, that is our role, to supervise the work of the Banjaluka Sports and Fishing Society. It is also a legal obligation. We are obliged to analyze everything and submit it to the Board of Directors. We are an independent and autonomous body within the company that supervises the legality and intended use and disposal of the company's funds and controls financial and material operations”, says Jovandić.

He also notes that the company's bodies are obliged to enable the Supervisory Board to work smoothly and view all the documentation related to the business, however, they were denied certain documentation by the Management Board, and that they received a part of the documents after the intervention of Pero Pejinović, the president Assemblies of associations.

“We observed numerous illegalities and irregularities. We put that in the report, however, now we have information that they are trying to avoid the report at the annual session of the Assembly scheduled for June 29, they are lobbying the Assembly delegates to reject this report and replace the current Supervisory Board. I think that the police and the public prosecutor should be involved in this, that the audit should also be involved, that an investigation should be conducted into the legality of the work”, said Jovandić.

He adds that the Statute of the Association stipulates that the Assembly of the Society decides on the management and disposal of assets, and that the Assembly authorizes the Board of Directors to manage assets without the right of disposal, and that this is also stated in a legal opinion.

“When preparing our report, we had to consult a lawyer, so that they would know if it was illegal actions. Here it is written that since the office space is immovable property, i.e. it is indisputably part of the company's property, and since the Board of Directors did not have statutory powers or the decision of the Assembly authorizing the Board of Directors to conclude contracts, it concludes that they did not have the authority to do so. He also notes that this type of contract does not produce a legal effect for the company because it was concluded by an unauthorized person”, adds Jovandić.

The President of the Assembly of the Association Pero Pejinović briefly confirmed for Gerila that he does not know the details of the new contract with the company Bosna impex, that this contract was not on the agenda of the Assembly, but that all information about the operations of SRD Banjaluka, signed contracts and disputes are requested from the president Dragan Petrušić of the Board of Directors, who is the person authorized to represent the Company.

Nevertheless, Pejinović adds, he is aware that in the past period the procedures were not respected when it comes to the work of the Association, and that he agrees with what the Supervisory Board put in its report.

“The Statute of the Association defined how it must be done and what are the responsibilities of whom. The work of the Supervisory Board must be respected, and I stand behind the fact that the Supervisory Board did its job well”, said Pejinović.

On the other hand, Dragan Petrušić, the president of the Board of Directors and the person whose signature appears on the new contract with the company Bosna impex, did not want to answer our questions. Originally he said to send him the questions by mail.

“Please, so that I don't have to give you a statement from the car, send official questions to the email. I am not competent for that. There are people who worked on it, don't let me give you statements from the car, so that it is officially taken out of context. The one who gave you that information has nothing to do with the relationship, so I will give you the lawyer who worked on it”, Petrušić told the Gerila journalist.

However, even after sending the questions, SRD Banjaluka still did not answer our questions.

“We inform you that the questions to which you are looking for an answer have been forwarded to the competent commission of the Banja Luka Sports Fishing Society. Also, we inform you that you will receive answers to the same questions within the legally stipulated period”, they state in SRD Banjaluka.

In addition to the questions about the aforementioned contract, we also asked the SRD Banjaluka to give us answers from the Association to the other disputed matters contained in the report of the Supervisory Board, including the claims of individual fishermen that certain members of the Management Board are in a conflict of interest, that is, whether one of the members of the Management Board, a lawyer who represents the SRD of Banjaluka in court proceedings.

The Supervisory Board noted a deficit in business, as well as an unpaid claim

“Analyzing the available documentation, the Supervisory Board determined that there is a significant value of disputed claims in the Company that have not been adequately valued. Analyzing the positions of receivables from the analytical card for the observed period, it is concluded that there are items that have been maintained without any change for more than three years”, the report states.

In addition, it is added that they could not determine whether all court judgments have been identified in bookkeeping, as well as the exact number of disputes led by the Company or led against the Company, for the reason that the Commission for Legal and General Issues did not submit its report.

“We emphasize the incompleteness of the information on the state of all court cases. We especially highlight and point to the court case related to the dispute with Betongradnja-Vidović, because on October 5, 2012, a lawsuit was filed for compensation for damages due to the death of fish in Dragočajska Rijeka in the amount of 100,000 KM.”

The Supervisory Board concluded that the Management Board did not have the authority to make individual decisions on costs that deviate from the adopted annual plan.

Lake Manjača – another unanswered question

Gerila sources say that there are still some disputed matters in the work of SRD Banjaluka. One of them is the collection of tickets for the regulation of fishing and the collection of tickets on Lake Manjača.

“SRD Banjaluka signed a contract with the Center for Village Development and Improvement, however, water disposal, access to fishermen and fishing is determined by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, which signs a contract with fishing associations for each water surface. Secondly, it is prescribed that the permit form must be in accordance with the Rulebook on the Form, Content and Form of Fishing Permits, and we have information that permits are being sold that were not issued by the Ministry but distributed by the Fishing Association of the RS”, says one of the fishermen from RSD Banjaluka.

Although we also sent these questions to the address of SRD Banjaluka, and the relevant Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, we still have not received a single answer.