No State Prison for at Least Two More Years

“Two tenders for the selection of a contractor and supervisory body were issued. In both cases the Commission completed the work. A recommendation for contractor was given to the Supervisory Board. As far as the supervisory body is concerned, a recommendation will be made in the coming days,” said Zoran Basic, Director of the Unit for Implementation of the Project, UIP, for construction of the state prison.

The Management Board of the UIP for construction of the state prison has already met twice in order to make a decision on the contractor, but the process has still not been completed.

Emir Mehmedovic, President of the Management Board, says that the material they have received from the Commission is voluminous and that he expects that it will be possible to make the decision by the end of October.

Besides the Management Board, the Development Bank is supposed to give its consent to the selection of the contractor. Mehmedovic assumes that the Development Bank’s consent should be received by mid-November.

Marina Bakic, spokesperson of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that it was expected that the construction of the state prison would begin this autumn. However, as a decision by the Management Board is being awaited, Bakic says that it is hard to speak about the exact deadline for the beginning of construction.
Several companies, both local and international, applied to the tender for contractor.

It is not known whether the Commission recommended a local or international contractor. Mehmedovic hopes that it will be possible to conduct some of the works even during the winter period.

Mehmedovic said that it would take two years from the beginning of the construction works through to accommodating the first prisoners in the building.

The state prison construction project is worth 77 million KM and began in 2007. All financial resources, according to Bakic, will be secured. The European Commission, Swedish and US Governments are the donors.

Although the dates when the first prisoners would move into the state prison have been announced for years, according to the current estimates, we can expect that to happen in 2015 only. Convicts sentenced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which began working in 2005, are supposed to be held in that prison. This institution processes cases covering general, organised and war crimes.

According to the project, the State Court is supposed to have the most contemporary and safe prison protection in the Balkans. Its planned surface area will be about 24,000 square metres. It should be able to accommodate 348 convicts and detainees.