Cantonal Court in Tuzla sentenced a former CEO of Đurđevik Brown Coal Mine, Adnan Šabić, to six years in prison pending appeal and banned him from holding executive office in public companies in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina over the next three years.
In 2006, the CEO Šabić put out a call for procurement of fuel that included the criterion of previous experience. Reporters from the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) closely inspected this deal and found that a Lukavac firm won the tender thanks too this criterion even though the price of fuel it offered was not the cheapest. In the process the firm earned nearly 19 million KM.
The mine had to pay 1.1 million compensation to a firm Shell-Elektron which complained about the illegal criterion.
The mine’s former manager for commercial affairs, Esad Hadžić, and Nermin Alić, a manager at Junuzović-Kopex were each convicted to three years in prison. According to the indictment filed by the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office in Tuzla, Hadžić and Alić made it possible for Junuzović-Kopex to collect nearly 400,000 KM from the mine for the costs of diesel customs duties even though the firm didn’t incur these costs at all.
The Lukavac firm was fined with 100,000 KM and if the verdict becomes final and binding, it will have to forfeit around 740,000 KM in illicit gains, according to the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office’s press release.
Defense and prosecutors may appeal to the FBiH Supreme Court.
