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Office of Attorney General: It cannot be determined whether the Commission for Concessions conducted the procedure in a legal manner
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Đokić signed the contract despite the negative opinion of the Office of the Attorney General
BANJALUKA – Consortium of company “Solar energetic” from Krupa na Uni, “Tempo kompani” from Belgrade, “Interpromet” from Novi Grad and “Siming trade” from Foča has filed a lawsuit against the Government of Republika Srpska for the illegal award of concession for construction of solar power plant “Dubovik” in Krupa na Uni, worth BAM 158 million, reveals CAPITAL.
The owner and the director of the company “Siming trade” Mladen Elez, who represented this consortium before the Commission for Concessions, confirmed that a lawsuit was filed with the request to annul the RS Government’s decision of January 18, 2024.
“This decision awarded the concession to the consortium of companies “SunnyFox” form Novi Grad and GTI from Sarajevo. We have filed the lawsuit and expect the District Court in Banja Luka to rule in our favor, that is, to annul the contested decision”, confirmed Elez for CAPITAL.
However, instead of waiting for the completion of this administrative dispute before the District Court, the RS Minister of energy and mining, Petar Đokić, has in the meantime taken a step further and signed the contract on award of the concession with the SunnyFox-GTI consortium.
The Office of Attorney General has bought into question the legality of the work of the Commission for Concessions
To make the matters even worse, Đokić signed the contract two days ago, although the RS Office of Attorney General had on Friday, March 22, given a negative opinion, assessing that there are no conditions to conclude this contract.
Furthermore, the Office of Attorney General had in its opinion practically confirmed all the statements in the lawsuit of the consortium consisting of Solar energetik, Tempo kompani, Interpromet and Siming trade.
“It cannot be determined whether the selected consortium SunnyFox-GTI submitted a valid proof of funds in the prescribe legal form – a guarantee for participation in the procedure for award of the concession. In addition, it cannot be determined whether the Commission for Concessions of RS had conducted the procedure in a proper and legal manner, and whether the Commission was correct in depriving the submitter of the initiative of the right to a bonus of ten percent of the points”, reads the opinion of the RS Office of Attorney General.
CAPITAL reported this after the consortium led by the company “Solar energetic” was eliminated from the race to obtain the concession because it did not receive statutory points as submitter of initiative with the explanation that it did not participate in the public call independently, but as a member of the consortium.
In the opinion that our portal had access to, the Office of Attorney General assessed that Spatial Plan for the Krupa na Una area, that is, a Zoning Plan for the concession area had to be prepared before conclusion of the contract.
“In addition to the matters indicated above, we stress the possibility of problems arising concerning connection to the electricity grid, which was already mentioned by the assistant minister for electricit,y Milan Baštinac. In the document sent to the RS Office of Attorney Genera he expressed the view that, considering previous experiences in court proceedings, where the RS Government and the competent ministry were sued, it was not justified to start the procedure for granting the concession for Dubovik solar power plant until the issue of connection to the grid was resolved, because it could lead to a new dispute with financial consequences”, reads the opinion of the RS Office of Attorney General.
The government might face new lawsuits
Mladen Elez says that he does not know whether the contract with the SunnyFox-GTI consortium has already been signed, but if it is, then the Government is facing new lawsuits with the compensation claims.
“If a contract was signed with that consortium, and the court upholds our arguments, which we have no doubts about, the Government would have to terminate the signed contract, and in that case it will probably receive a lawsuit from the SunnyFox-GTI consortium. If the contract does not get terminated, then we will file a lawsuit with a request for compensation for lost profits”, said Elez.
He adds that due to the illegal procedure before the RS Commission for Concessions, the consortium he represents will seek compensation of around 150.000 Euro that they invested in the preparation of the Economic Justification Study and other costs in this procedure.
Let us recall that according to the public call for award of the concession, the solar power plant “Dubovik” will be built on an area of 102 hectares in the area of the municipality of Krupa na Uni. The estimated value of the investment is BAM 100.126.000, the installed capacity is 80 MW, and the estimated annual production is 100 GWh.
The consortium consisting of “SunnyFox” and “GTI” offered a one-time concession fee of BAM 792 thousand while the planned value of the project is BAM 158 million. It submitted bank statements of the company “GTI” from Ziraat Bank with 2.9 million Euro and around BAM 85 thousand, as well as a notarized certificate from the Company Invest Gmbh in the amount of 81 million Euro as a guarantee.
On the other hand, consortium Solar energetik, Tempo kompani, Interpromet and Siming trade offered a one-time concession fee of BAM 611.000 and an investment in the value of BAM 122 million. The guarantee submitted by the consortium was a bank statement of the member of the consortium “Tempo kompani” showing 25 million Euro, as well as Nova banka’s letter of intent issued to that company in the amount of BAM 73 million.
According to all of this, the offer of the SunnyFox-GTI consortium is financially more favorable both in terms of the amount of the one-time concession fee and the value of the total investment, but due to procedural legal omissions, instead of an investment of 158 million KM, Republika Srpska could face a multimillion-dollar compensation.
CAPITAL: Darko Momić
