CHINESE AND DOMESTIC WORKERS AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE: The work is being carried out on time, the lawsuits are awaiting an epilogue, and the contract for the construction of HPP Dabar is still a secret

More than a year has passed since the laying of the foundation stone for the construction of the Dabar Hydroelectric Power Plant (HED) in the village of Vrijeka in Bilec. Works are progressing according to plan. The contract on construction and credit with Chinese partners is still hidden from the public, and before the District Court in Banja Luka, several lawsuits against the relevant ministry, because of this project, are awaiting their epilogue. In the meantime, the current HED director, Slaviša Stajić, was replaced by a new one - Danilo Ilić, and another proceeding is still ongoing before the District Court in Trebinje due to the concealment of the contract.

As the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska Radovan Višković asserted a little more than a year ago, the renowned Chinese contractor - the Chinese group China Gezhouba Group Co (CGGC) with which a contract worth around 224 million marks was signed, was chosen for the execution of works on the construction of the HED.
By the way, Radio Free Europe announced just before the laying of the foundation stone that the Highways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed that this company was disqualified from the election as the contractor for the Prenj tunnel, due to, as they said, the submission of false documents and attempted fraud.
Our question to the director of this group, Liu Hualiang, to comment on these claims, remained unanswered.
While 100 Chinese workers and 30 local workers perform their work tasks, the civil sector constantly warns about the environmental damage of the project and expresses doubts about the good intentions of the authorities and investors, since the work has not been transparent from the very beginning. However, the HED administration assures that there is no cause for concern and that this, as they call it, a historical project, preserves nature.
"We cannot do this project and suspect that it is harmful to someone," the new director of HPP Dabar, Danilo Ilić, is categorical.

Lawsuits against the competent ministry
Associations Center for the Environment (CZŽS) and Aarhus Center have filed several lawsuits in the District Court in Banja Luka against the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of the Republic of Srpska due to various construction permits issued for the implementation of the Dabar Hydroelectric Power Plant project, it was confirmed to Direkt in these associations .
As it was explained to us in the Aarhus Center, the first lawsuit, which related to the environmental permit, was rejected by the District Court in Banja Luka and it is now in the Supreme Court of the RS.
The Aarhus Center submitted five more lawsuits against the competent ministry for issuing multiple building permits for the realization of the Dabar HPP.
The Banja Luka Center for the Environment also sent five lawsuits to the District Court due to disputed building permits.
In the proceedings so far, as confirmed to us at the Aarhus Center, three lawsuits by Aarhus and CZŽS have been consolidated, and a further decision by the Court is awaited for two lawsuits.
"The meaning of all lawsuits is the same, and we challenge the building permits they issued in different periods." Therefore, we sued the competent ministry for not properly issuing construction permits. According to us, they do not have all the elements that they should have in accordance with the Law on General Administrative Procedure", they told Direkt in CZŽS.
Emina Veljović, the executive director of the Aarhus Center, explains that the first lawsuit, which this organization filed in June last year, and which is now before the Supreme Court of the RS, related to the renewed environmental permit. According to her, the competent court judged that this organization should have been involved in the process earlier, that is, when the original permit was issued, ignoring the fact that the Aarhus Center did not even exist at the time.
"However, we have the right to challenge any administrative act at any time. There are also environmental issues, proposed measures and issues of how they were determined, then ignoring the fact that there is a white-legged crab in that area, which is an extremely endangered species, recognized by our laws and regulations," Veljović explains to Direkt.
We also requested the position of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of the RS, but we did not receive an answer until the publication of this text.

What is disputed?
In the lawsuits that are awaiting an epilogue at the Banja Luka District Court, issues of environmental protection, i.e. the impact of HPP Dabar on the entire area, are also problematic.

The Valter portal and the Spin info portal wrote about it in detail, and in the Aarhus center they state what, according to them, are the main objections regarding the construction of the Dabar HPP.
In addition, Aarhus' argument is also the fact that the citizens were not adequately involved in the decision-making process, so they did not even know what was happening until the construction began.
"Another very important thing is that the data that was used as a basis for issuing a building permit is outdated, from the end of the previous century. Therefore, climate change, the drop in water flow and the overall cumulative effect, which will occur in the context of the impact on the Neretva River, and then on all other rivers, were not taken into account," Veljović specifies.
It is also problematic that, as he says, when issuing a construction permit, there is no precise data on how it affects other ecosystems and other hydropower plants.
"We have concluded that it is a violation of the Aarhus and Berne Conventions on the Protection of Species and Natural Habitats, to which our country is a signatory. Then there is the Ramsar Convention which concerns wetlands. This area will have an impact on protected areas and bird habitats. They did not take into account the impact on the FBiH, nor on Croatia, which means that, according to our interpretation, there was a violation of the Espoo Convention, which refers to cross-border influence", says Emina Veljović, apostrophizing the problem of the Neretva river basin, which is already "slowed down". and into which sea water is already penetrating.
"So, when you build these other power plants, you will further slow it down and seawater will also enter Nertva and destroy not only the special biodiversity, but also the economy of the locals who live there and survive from agriculture," says Veljović and adds that this is why pressure on the judiciary as well, since very large investments are involved.
The director of HPP Dabar, Danilo Ilić, rejects all claims of a negative impact on the environment and states that the project was carried out according to all regulations and that it passed all necessary audits.
"I think there is no reason to doubt the profession. And some judicial bodies confirmed those decisions. We will respond to all actions, of course. This concept was founded in 1953 and the entire history of that project is over 50 years. Even in the former Yugoslavia, experts showed that there is no harm, they even presented various benefits of this project, which is not only energy-related. "Energy is a basis that pushes this project, and this project provides benefits for human resources, agriculture and the like", Ilić explains.
When it comes to the Zalomka river, he claims that the bed of this river is dry 80 percent of the time a year.

"Our obligation is to fulfill the ecological minimum, which we will do. In the dry season, the downstream catchment will have additional amounts of water. In addition, during periods of high water, flooding of downstream areas due to high water will be prevented. All preliminary research is done for a number of years, hydrological research for hundreds. That is not a basis for further speculation," he says in response to Direkt's questions.
In order to clarify the entire system and plans, the management of HPP Dabra organized a visit to the key points of this project for journalists.
At this moment, work has begun on the Pošćenje dam, on the Grebak embankment and on the machine building, which are works from the contract with the Chinese company.
"We are still preparing further works, because this contract consists of eight buildings. In addition to these, there is also the Vranjača embankment, a water level, a pipeline under pressure, a channel through Dabarsko polje and the expansion of the Dabar-Fatnica tunnel. We are now preparing for the start of concrete work on Grepko, and initial work on the excavation of the machine building is also underway. We had the relocation of water pipes, transmission lines and, of course, they are working on the organization of their construction site and Camp Divin", explains Ilić.

The construction of the Dabar tunnel, he says, is being done with his own funds.
"We have done the tunneling there, there are still about 90 meters left to finish and we still have about two kilometers of lining, which we need to hand over to the Chinese company within the agreed time," Ilić points out and adds: "This is the only project in the RS where it is completely closed financial construction. HPP Dabar has provided funds of 15 percent of the advance, the rest is being credited by Eksim Bank, and from that side we have no obstacles in carrying out the works. That is the amount of about 224 million marks."

One verdict and a new trial for hiding the contract
In January of this year, the district court in Trebinje ruled for the first time in favor of CZŽS and annulled the decision of Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska (ERS) by which they refused to submit to this organization a construction contract with a Chinese company, as well as a credit contract for this project with Eksim Bank.
After the ERS acted according to the verdict and removed the previously established omissions, but still did not deliver the contracts, CZŽS started the lawsuit process again.
"The case is awaiting the order of resolution, because cases are resolved in this court according to the age of the initial act", they answered Direkt in the District Court in Trebinje.
The lawyer from CZŽS Redžib Skomorac explains for our portal that in the first instance the District Court accepted their lawsuit, because in ERS, i.e. HE Dabro, they did not give sufficiently valid reasons why they are censoring the construction contract and the credit agreement, since it is about public project and use of public money.
"ERS made a new decision, but again refuses to provide the requested information, additionally explaining the reasons, which were not in the previous decision. They believe that in this way they executed the judgment and that this decision is in accordance with the judgment, but we are again prevented from having information about the credit agreement and the contract", explains Skomorac and adds that he hopes that after the new decision of the court, the public will finally to get a look at the disputed contracts and that then it will be clear why they have been hiding from the public eye all this time.
Director Ilić states first that the contracts are not hidden from the public, but he does not answer our question whether he can submit the contract to us for inspection.
"We have signed agreements with the Chinese company, where we have to keep it and respect the principle of the contract. Public procurement was open and transparent. We act according to the business policy of the company and according to the signed agreements with the companies", he states.

Chinese: It's not up to us
Deputy General Director of CGGC Tang Jan Bing, when asked if he has information why their contracts for the construction of the Dabar Hydroelectric Power Station are secret, says that as far as they are concerned there are no reasons for secrecy and that it is probably the reasons of the clients that he cannot talk about .
"As far as our side is concerned, there is no problem and as far as we are concerned, CGGC is not a problem at all. We don't know if there is a problem on the other side, but I don't think it should be a problem in general", said the deputy general director of the CGGC company.
Directly after the press conference, it was pointed out that Tang Jan Bing might not be the address for our question about the secrecy of the contract, since he is in charge of the technical part of the project.
Investors and contractors hope that HPP Dabar will be online within the stipulated period, i.e. by 2027, and that in the future, around 180 Chinese workers and around 300 local workers will be employed at the construction site.
The total value of all works on the HED is about 661 million marks and 159 megawatts of power will be installed.

CONCLUSION

Another in a series of projects that the local authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, the Republika Srpska entity, are realizing with Chinese creditors, and in which the public is not familiar with the details of the contract. Although the non-governmental sector reacted and filed lawsuits, and even received verdicts based on which the contract must be published (because for the implementation of the project, the loan from the Chinese bank will be repaid with public money, that is, budget funds), this did not happen.

This continues the practice of non-transparent work of Chinese creditors and investors in the countries of the Western Balkans, and the domestic authorities (in the concrete example of the Republika Srpska authorities put the interests of foreign banks before the interests of citizens). The fact that the work on the construction of the Dabar hydroelectric plant is being carried out by a company that was previously eliminated from the tender by JP Autoceste FBiH due to the submission of false documentation is also worrying.

Unfortunately, the usual practice of non-transparent contracts with Chinese creditors and companies being fought exclusively by the non-governmental sector and the media continues, while representatives of the government and the opposition rarely react to this, which is already a regular occurrence in the countries of the Western Balkans.