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“I wish to remind the colleagues from the SDA that, maybe contrary to their established practice, public procurement matters are decided by the commission, and that institutions not being part of the Ministry act upon appeals. No contract was signed with a company from the black list, but with the only qualified bidder for the digitalisation project – the Consortium comprising Sirius 2010 Banja Luka and Odašiljači i veze Zagreb. The Ministry was not in a hurry and I personally insisted that before signing the contract, in addition to the final position by the Public Review Body of BiH, the proceedings before the Court of BiH was finalised that confirmed that there was no other qualified bidder”, said Minister Forto.

In order to protect the interests of BiH with respect to signing the Contract, the Ministry informed the security structures in BiH to ensure the supervision of equipment installation.

Six months following the Contract signing, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) included Sirius 2010 in the sanctions list.

“Then I requested an immediate statement to be made by the Consortium on its ability to implement the Contract and clearly indicated I had no intention of violating the US Administration sanctions”, said Forto.

The Consortium Members submitted a statement proposing withdrawal of Sirius 2010 from the Contract and that all rights are liabilities under the Contract are assumed by the Odašiljači i veze. The Ministry informed the Office of Attorney General of BiH of this and requested its position on any further actions. The position of the OAG BiH, among others, states that a Contract Addendum can be concluded whereby all the rights and liabilities stemming from the Contract would be assumed by the OIV, and Sirius 2010 would waive all claims, subject to a prior verification of OIV’s ability to implement the Contract independently, which we did.

“I would not get into the mess that the MP Kešo is unsuccessfully trying to drag me into, but I invite him to take the responsibility for the defamation and insinuations about my personal interest in this procedure that he is unfoundedly spreading, apparently accustomed to such practice during the 30-year rule in which contracts were concluded exclusively for the benefit of Ministers, and not of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He incriminates not only me, but a number of staff and institutions involved in the process, from with the Ministry, the Public Review Body of BiH, the Court of BiH and the Office of Attorney General of BiH, the acts and activities of which I supported with my signature”, concluded Minister Forto.