Author: Nikolija Bjelica Škrivan (Direkt)
“Xplode media”, a company associated with the SNSD councilor in the Assembly of Trebinje, Aleksandar Bodiroga, got a job from Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska to advertise the company at sports, cultural, humanitarian and other manifestations and events. The total value of the framework agreement for six months is about BAM 790.000 without VAT, or about BAM 920.000 with VAT.
“Xplode media” was the only bidder at this tender and in the next six months its task is to work on the image of this public enterprise.
Company registered to the brother, and the address to a cousin
The owner of the company, which was founded in September 2021, is Nemanja Bodiroga, the brother of councilor Aleksandar Bodiroga. The contact phone number of this company leads to the phone number of this councilor.
There is a house at the address where the company is registered, where, as we learn, Srđan Kovač lives. By the way, he is a cousin of councilor Aleksandar Bodiroga, but also the president of SNSD youth in Trebinje.
The company did not achieve any significant results in the first year of its operations. In 2022 they had no employees and revenue generated was around BAM 19.500. That is why the year 2023 could be their breakthrough in the business world.
The official website of “Xplode media” reads that their business partners were mostly public enterprises and institutions, but also the Chinese company “China Energy Engineering Group”, under which, according to the RSE’s reports, operates “China Gezhouba Group Co. Ltd” that is building the Hydropower Plant Dabar.
“Xplode media”, as they have stated, participated in the organization of the foundation stone laying event for the construction of the Dabar Hydropower Plant. They cooperated with the City of Trebinje, Hydropower plants on Trebišnjica (HET), where councilor Bodirog is employed, Hydropower plants on Drina, Andrićgrad and the Tourism Organization of the City of Trebinje.
It got BAM 6.000 last year also from ERS as part of the distribution of money for boosting of visual features and sponsoring services.
Foto: Direkt
Led displays of this company have been installed at a couple of locations in Trebinje, and during this holiday season they are, inter alia, featuring New Year’s greetings from the local Herceg Television and public institutions.
Foto: Direkt
In addition to Trebinje, as they have stated, the company also set up its display in Višegrad.
Although it is in marketing, which in the digital era is inseparable from social networks, the company that ERS gave trust to and significant money has only about 50 followers on its official Facebook page. The last post on the page was in June of this year. They are not much more up-to-date on Instagram either, where they have around 280 followers.
Yellow flag for the tender
The tender for the procurement of advertising services for ERS was announced at the beginning of September this year. This procurement was subsequently included in the procurement plan for this year.
The procedure was marked as a medium-risk procurement by the “Pratimo tendere” portal, because the conditions indicated that there was a possibility of discrimination against bidders, since it was subsequently included in the procurement plan and was not conducted within the planned time frame. Also, additional doubt comes from the fact that only one bidder applied to the tender.
The editor of this portal, Slobodan Golubović, points out that usually much higher bidder qualification requirements regarding the value of previous contract are set for such high procurement values. In this case, the bidder had to have only one contract worth at least BAM 30.000.
“Here it is obvious that the company to which the contract was intended and ultimately awarded did not have a certificate on completed work, but only a certificate for BAM 30.000, so this value was adjusted for that reason. The only question is what eliminated the competition in the qualification conditions.”, explained Golubović.
Slobodan Golubović (Foto: pratimotendere.ba)
He adds that the subsequent inclusion of this procurement in the planning documents means that there is an urgent need for this or that there is a surplus of money intended for public procurement, so they do not know how to spend it or do not want to spend it in another way.
“It should not be forgotten that in the initial 2023 Public Procurement Plan fthis company planned to spend BAM 7.5 million for the procurement of advertising services and that it did so in the first part of the year, and then on September 6, by amending/supplementing the procurement plan for these purposes, another BAM 790.000 were added, which corresponds to the value of the procurement in question”, stressed Golubović.
In a statement for our portal, he also questions the need of the companies from the power supply system in BiH to have this type of advertising, because they have no competition on the domestic market.
“When it comes to foreign sales, electricity is a commodity and in that case there is no need for any advertising. It is evident that this is about at least two things, the first is political promotion, because all managers of companies from the energy sector more or less also have political functions, and the second is extracting public money for political and private purposes. Colleagues from the magazine Žurnal have calculated that in the course of 2023, Elektroprivreda RS alone had spent more than BAM 10 million on such purchases”, concluded our interlocutor.
Hidden diploma
SNSD councilor Aleksandar Bodiroga, close to the general secretary of this party, Luka Petrović, entered the Assembly of Trebinjethanks to 1.109 votes from the citizens of Trebinje.
He did not become famous for his discussions and initiatives in the assembly. You can know that he is there only by hearing a few sporadic questions from him. The SNSD official website states that the vice-president of the Young Social Democrats for electoral unit 9.
The official website of the Youth Council of the Republika Srpska states that he is a civil engineer by profession, but it is not stated where and when he obtained that professional title.
Councilor of the List for Justice and Order, Dajana Milišić, has two times already asked councilor Bodiroga at the assembly to provide her with information about his education.
“I publicly asked that question to Councilor Bodiroga twice. However, I never got an answer, which is usually the case when we ask tricky questions. According to my information, at the beginning of this year, after the HET, where he is employed, did not recognize his diploma in civil engineering, which he obtained in a few weeks, he brought a new diploma, but now – no more, no less a doctorate degree in transport.”, claims councilor Milišić.
Journalists of Fokus have asked HET to comment councilor Milišić’s claims, but this company did not respond to their inquiry.
Bodirog did not want to talk about it with journalists of Direkt. We have tried to get answers to these questions on several occasion, but without any success.
Bodiroga first said that he would provide us with all the information about his education, he even wrote us an email, but he did not do so until the time this text was published.
He did not answer our phone calls or the messages we sent him.
Aleksandar Bodiroga started a new job in September of this year. Together with the famous Ersin Kustemir, he founded the company “TT export-import” in Trebinje. As Direkt learns, Kustemir is a Turkish citizen who has stayed in Bosnia and Herzegovina on several occasions.
The capital share of both founders in the newly founded company is BAM 5.000 each.
According to the Akta.ba portal, the director of this company is Aleksandar Bodiroga.
The company is registered at Vojvoda Stepa Stepanovića bb. Journalists of Direkt could not get to the premises of this company, since the address does not have a house number.
