PARTNERSHIP CONNECTIONS OF THE MAYOR OF KISELJAK: Ceste Company awarded contracts worth two million BAM

The company Ceste Company from Kiseljak has received contracts worth around two million BAM with VAT from the Municipality of Kiseljak since the beginning of this year alone. This continues a multi-year practice in which this company is an absolute record holder in obtaining contracts from the Municipality.

While contracts were being signed, reports were filed with the cantonal and Federal prosecutor's offices. In December 2023, the Federal Prosecutor's Office accepted an appeal against the decision not to initiate an investigation made by the Prosecutor's Office of the Central Bosnia Canton. The appeal concerns the abuse of position and authority, as well as the negligent performance of duties by the mayor of the Municipality of Kiseljak, Mladen Mišurić Ramljak, and authorized persons at the Kiseljak Police Station. The decision of the Federal Prosecutor's Office states that the cantonal prosecutor Edina Mešić based her decision on an incompletely established factual situation.

The report alleges that the mayor of the Municipality of Kiseljak has "established partnership connections" with the companies Bar-Floor and Ceste Company, enabling the acquisition of financial resources. Žurnal previously reported that three criminal complaints each have been filed against Pero Pecirep, the manager of Ceste Mostar in Kiseljak and a member of the Supervisory Board, and Mladen Mišurić Ramljak, the mayor of the Municipality of Kiseljak, from 2012 until now. They were twice jointly reported for abuse of position, and in 2012, Mišurić was also reported for non-compliance with a court decision.

Some of the complaints relate to Ceste Company occasionally using machines from Ceste Mostar, which is mostly state-owned. This is facilitated by the fact that Pero Pecirep is a member of the Supervisory Board, and the owner of Ceste Company is Jelena Pecirep, the former wife of Pero Pecirep. In some business registers, Pero Pecirep is still listed as one of the directors of Ceste Company. In some media articles from Kiseljak, Pecirep is presented as the manager of Ceste Company. These complaints are supported by photographs of work machines that the complainant, as previously reported, confirmed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Central Bosnia Canton belong to Ceste Mostar. At the time of the photographs, they were performing tasks for Ceste Company.

Furthermore, the complaints state that during the execution of works in the Municipality of Kiseljak, there is illegal exploitation of river sand and gravel, which is transported from the Sports and Recreation Zone (a project of the Municipality of Kiseljak) to other locations. Ceste Company, Ceste Mostar, the Municipality of Kiseljak, and the lawyer of Mayor Mladen Mišurić Ramljak, to whom we were referred by the Municipality, did not respond to our request for an interview on this topic.

Due to numerous complaints he has filed, Nedeljko Stjepanović from Kiseljak is facing various pressures. As he told Žurnal, at least five defamation lawsuits have been filed against him in the Municipal Court in Kiseljak:

- Over a period of more than two years, I reported criminal offences related to a criminal group from Kiseljak, and finally, the Federal Prosecutor's Office overturned the decision of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office, which persistently claimed that the reported actions were not criminal offences. However, the same group filed numerous defamation lawsuits with this court that they absolutely control. It involves the theft of public money by the connected criminal group led by the mayor of the Municipality of Kiseljak, Mladen Mišurić Ramljak, who has been in that position for about 20 years.

The filed complaints relate to public procurement for the construction of the Health Center in Kiseljak, as we have reported before, the construction of the Sports and Recreation Zone in Kiseljak, the construction of a roundabout, violations of the Law on Public Procurement, sand exploitation, and other areas that we will cover in upcoming articles.

(zurnal.info)