Yesterday, the Centers for Civil Initiatives (CCI) pointed out numerous shortcomings in the allocation of state aid to public enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the questionable expediency of that aid, and the unregulated system of its allocation.
CCI Public Relations and Media Coordinator Hasan Kamenjakovic specified at the press conference that according to the latest available report of the BiH State Aid Council, which was prepared in 2020 for 2019, state aid in BiH amounts to more than 432 million BAM.
He added that this amount includes the allocation for agriculture, which explicitly does not represent state aid that is controlled. State aid without aid for agriculture and fisheries in 2019 amounted to more than 264 million BAM, so the share of state aid in GDP in 2019 amounted to 0.80 percent.
”However, according to available data from state, entity, cantonal and local budgets, this assistance is significantly higher than the state aid presented in official data,” Kamenjakovic stated.
CCI project associate Aleksandar Draganic explained that the largest amounts are set aside for companies that have had great difficulties in doing business for years, such as Federation of BiH (FBiH) Railways and Republika Srpska (RS) Railways, and that it is tens of millions of BAM whose economic justification is questionable.
”It is interesting that state aid is also approved to public enterprises that irresponsibly constantly increase the number of employees, regardless of the fact that they are operating at a loss. However, state-owned companies that are profitable also receive state aid, which is an illogicality that no one is yet questioning,” Draganic pointed out.
Project coordinator CCI Emina Catic emphasized that it is necessary to strengthen the institutional framework for state aid control – from the functioning of the BiH State Aid Council itself and the existing way of working and decision-making within the existing institutional solutions to better and more efficient coordination of all other institutions and actors at all levels.
She also believes that more efforts should be made to identify all approved and allocated amounts, especially those from the budget, with information on their purposefulness, as well as illegal state aid because the current situation in this area is not sustainable.
E.Dz.
