The Government of Canton Sarajevo reffered the Draft of the amendments to the Law on Concessions to the Assembly

English

Following the suggestion of the Ministry of Economy, the Government of Canton Sarajevo set out the Draft of the Amendments to the Law on Concessions, with the goal of achieving better results of its implementation regarding the volume and diversity of concessions, form of conducted procedures and number of concession contracts. Until now, ministries and municipalities, as was noted in the rationale, did not conduct their obligations concerning the planing and preparation for the granting of concessions.

In the last period, the number of conducted procedures for the granting of concessions and the number of concession contracts has been small. Conducted procedures and concluded contracts are related to the Ministry of Economy of Canton Sarajevo, while the other competent ministries did not conduct a single procedure, that is they did not conclude a single contract on concessions for a concession subject from their department. These amendments define the competencies of each ministry regarding the subject of concession. According to the current Law, the ministries are also oblidged to make annual and mid-term plans of granting concessions and the municipalities are oblidged to sugest projects which will be granted for concession.

Concession contracts that have been signed until now have been related to the usage of non-metal mineral raw materials, usage of drinking ground waters and thermomineral waters, which can not be satisfactary from the aspect of diversity.

All of the concessions that have been granted so far have been based on unsolicited bids, and the possibilities of public invitation have not been used so far. The Law presribes everything that can be used as a subject of concessions including the aforementioned natural resources, construction and use of roads, different energy plants, public utilities, all kinds of public transport, use of agricultural land, use of cable car, sport and recreational facilities, recycling and disposal of all kinds of waste, hotels and tourist objects, health and pharmaceutical services.

In order to eliminate the obvious flaws in today's monitoring system for implementation of the Law on Concessions and contracts on concession, the suggested amendments prescribe that all the current users of concession subjects, who have not signed a contract on concession, are obligated to file a request for the granting of concession within 30 days after the entry into force of these amendments. They are also obligated to sign a contract within 90 days of entry into force of the amendments. If they fail to do so, the competent inspection will ban the further use of the subject of concession.