It’s fascinating how much officials in Bosnia and Herzegovinalove expensive cars, as if they, God forbid, were all born in the pits on the track in Hockenheim or at the Hungaroring. As soon as they get their hands on some ministerial or other official positions, they immediately reach for some furious machine that even the highest German officials should not even think about because their citizens, the tax payers, would rightfully crucify them in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
As BiH officials have no fear that someone will call them out for being wasteful at the expense of the state, let alone that someone will take some responsibility, they have no restrictions in choosing a vehicle. As soon as they sit in the armchair, they let their imaginations run wild, choosing not only the category, type, brand and manufacturer, but also, which is especially widespread in domestic institutions, additional equipment. In the last few convocations, they have acquired incredible knowledge and experience in the field, they understand cubicles, brake and safety systems, heated seats, satellite tracking sensors, adaptive cruise controls and the whole wonder of modern automotive technology to the point that all of them, from Bozo Ljubic to Dusanka Majkic, have become real experts and now, at this moment, they can be the main constructors of Red Bull or Ferrari. As far as we know, if someone offered them such a position today, they would immediately accept it.
When government money is wasted without responsibility, there is one golden rule – if you don’t know what’s good, you know what’s expensive! Our imaginative people’s protectors from different positions went one step further and graduated that rule – if you don’t know what’s best, look for what’s most expensive. For many years now, as soon as a new convocation of institutions appears, real automotive beasts, strong and indomitable like mythical creatures, machines that even NASA would not be ashamed of, have appeared in front of the state and entity buildings. Additional equipment has been brought to the stage of a fairy tale – their vehicles are so modern and equipped with sensors that they scratch them exactly where it is needed,when a prominent local official, an absolute favorite among the citizens, gets an itch while driving. Our people’s representatives are not ordinary officials, so they can buy anything! After all, such cars, especially those with traction on each wheel, are very necessary when they intend to appear before the elections, so they set off on a tour across watersheds and plowed fields in the villages and returnee communities for which they promised to build roads twenty years ago and forgot about that promise as soon as the Central Election Commission announced the election results, and they took the seats of officials.
These journalist troublemakers who are always investigating dos and don’ts swear that they have seen with their own eyes the evidence that the local rulers have spent about ten million BAMon new super-luxury official cars in just five months, that is to say since the beginning of the year. Every year, if we are to believe those journalistic lobbyists, fifty to one hundred million BAM are set aside to purchase more than 500 official cars for the needs of institutions and public companies, all at the expense of the budget and citizens. When it comes to buying a favorite on four wheels at the expense of the state, there is no crisis for those in power.
In this area too, there is a race between the state institutions and the institutions of the Republika Srpska (RS). The president of that entity, who, they say, will pay 311,000 BAM for a new car, is just waiting for the opportunity to exceed the record in the state presidency, which is 318,000 for one vehicle. Let it be known that even in this area, the entity is a permanent category, and the state is only a transitory, necessary evil that holds the RSback. If it didn’t hold it back, maybe the limousine for the president would have already reached 400,000, so that even the American ambassador has something to admire and envy the president of RS.
This silly and ungrateful people does not understand at all that the purchase of expensive cars is necessary so that officials can effectively perform their duties and fulfill their obligations for the benefit of the citizens, so they constantly complain about what they say is extravagance. And the Minister of Economy and Entrepreneurship of the RS nicely explained to us that buying new vehicles is much more profitable and cheaper than the expensive maintenance of existing ones. If only someone would show us, ordinary citizens, in which showrooms this frugal math applies, so that we also buy new cars instead of constantly driving around changing oil, filters, belts, discs, balls and rod ends on our cars from the past twenty-thirty years, spending money without the need for car services.
E.Dz.
