Minister of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina Edin Forto stated that two important conclusions were reached at the session of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the “Viaduct” case and the debt that is growing every day.
As he said, the Council of Ministers tasked the Ministry of Finance with proposing a budget rebalance that would enable the payment of the arbitration award, due to which BHANSA’s accounts have already been blocked, and new blockades of other state accounts and assets are possible.
The second conclusion refers to urgent temporary financial assistance to BHANSA, whose functioning has been called into question due to the blocking of funds in Brussels. Forto warned that the cessation of the work of this agency would mean the loss of control over BiH airspace and the paralysis of airport operations.
“This situation shows how important it is to establish a mechanism by which the entities and other levels of government, which have caused international obligations, will bear the financial consequences, and not the state of BiH. The cessation of BHANSA’s work also means the loss of control over BiH skies, the damage to the reputation of BiH, and the cessation of the operation of airports in our country,” said Forto, adding that the measures must be implemented by Tuesday.
He concluded that it is of utmost importance to establish an efficient way for those who have lost money internationally to return those funds to the budget of BiH, which is the defendant in international disputes, i.e. so that the payment of international claims that were not generated by BiH itself, but by other levels of government, does not go to the detriment of the state.
