Sabina Cudic, president of the Club of Representatives of Our Party (Nasa stranka) in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) Parliament, thinks that Elektroprivreda is unjustifiably trying to shift the blame for the rise in electricity prices to the miners.
Elektroprivreda BiH reported yesterday that electricity prices will rise by up to 38 percent next year. As a reason, they mentioned the adoption of two demands of miners, the first is to change the price of coal, and the second is to do bridging of service periods for the miners.
“Miners are the last in the chain of responsibility for the increase in electricity prices. It must be known that the responsibility for the increase is borne by the Government of the FBiH, Elektroprivreda BiH, and mine management. It is a Bermuda triangle in which our electricity sector is disappearing and the damage is borne by the citizens since this is a blow to their household budget. The audit reports of the mine from 2006 until today show the disastrous management led by the mentioned Bermuda Triangle,“ she told.
It was found out from the report, as the representative of Our Party added, that the debts for pension disability, health insurance, and VAT have been accumulated for decades and nowamount to almost half a billion BAM.
Given that the miners did not use this health insurance because it was not paid to them, nor can they use it retroactively, this debt can and must be forgiven. The pension debt cannot be forgiven and must be paid.
“This has been warned before, but the recommendations for overcoming the crisis have been ignored. We found out from the report that instead of modernizing the mine, the administrations chose to hire mechanization by direct agreements. At the same time, they hired miners through project agreements. For instance, three million BAM were allocated from four private companies in 2018, all in violation of the Law on Public Procurement. On the other hand, two million BAM were allocated for project agreements with miners. This shows a negative audit report from that year,” she added.
The Kakanj mine, for which Prime Minister Novalic said was saved from bankruptcy by the FBiH government, had an accumulated loss of more than 117 million BAM in 2018, which exceeded its share capital by 25 million. That mine has not been saved from bankruptcy, it is in bankruptcy only the Prime Minister is afraid to say so.
“It is about time to draw the red line under the criminal management of this sector. In this regard, we have proposed automatic dismissal for directors of companies that received a negative opinion for the Audit Report on Financial Statements and/or Compliance Report from the Audit Office in the FBiH. We also proposed that commercial banks introduce a ban on the payment of salaries to all companies that do not pay contributions. Our proposals were rejected, which is a message that they want to continue in the same way until the final destruction of mines and miners is completed,” Cudic concluded.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
