A fugitive from the Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) judiciary crossed the BiH border with Serbia yesterday. Whether this time too he sped through with an escort in unmarked vehicles, or flew over in a helicopter at low altitude, is less important than the fact that once again he was not stopped. Police agencies have not said a word about it, while Dodik is very talkative. Yesterday, in an interview, together with the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, he spoke about BiH which, as he says, is “an evil intent against Serbs.” It should be mentioned that he said the same thing in Prijedor the day before. Alongside local topics, he found time for insults directed at the state.
“BiH is a wrong country. And that is why everything in it is wrong. And its survival is being defended in a way that is not logical, not constitutional, not in accordance with international law,” Dodik stated.
Debts came due for the Republika Srpska (RS) entity
Not a single sentence in his addresses did Dodik dedicate to Viaduct, Ugljevik, or the Elektroprivreda RS. And so it has been for months. Enormous debts that have come due for the entity whose president he is. Particularly interesting is the debt of RS to the Slovenian company Viaduct in the amount of 110 million BAM (increasing every day by 9.000 euros), which the state Minister of Finance, Srdjan Amidzic, who comes from Dodik’s party, believes should be paid by the state. BHANSA, why not? The same state that Dodik disparages and insults daily, and which he has brought into a stalemate, because the solution was delayed precisely by his ministers.
After hours of trying to reach an agreement, the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers addressed the issue after the session.
“I will advocate for the arbitration ruling to be executed immediately, in order to reduce the harmful consequences for BiH and its institutions. The only correct way is to intervene in the budget. I proposed to the minister to make corrections in the budget for the execution of this ruling, which amounts to a bit more than 110 million BAM. The minister insisted, and that took us quite a long time, so now we have the obligation to schedule a Fiscal Council session. I now say here before you, such an obligation does not exist, because we are not changing the fiscal framework, we are only conducting internal redistribution,” commented Borjana Kristo.
Collection through the sale of BiH assets and account seizures?
The Minister of Justice Davor Bunoza reminded that if BiH does not make the payment according to the arbitration ruling in the ‘Viaduct’ case, the plaintiff ‘Viaduct’ will collect its claim through the sale of BiH assets or seizure of funds from the accounts of BiH institutions abroad.
As he said, BiH property will be sold at a loss until the debt is settled.
In the end, the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers was tasked with urgently scheduling an extraordinary session of the Fiscal Council of BiH on Tuesday in order to reach an agreement on fulfilling the obligations from the arbitration ruling. The Federal Prime Minister Nermin Niksic also reacted.
“The authorities of the RS entity spend more energy on adopting separatist laws than on caring for the lives and livelihoods of their residents. They have invested everything in dismantling the state, from which they now want to squeeze out money for their debt. The debts are coming due one by one and we have no intention of offering a helping hand to those who are dismantling the constitutional order. Therefore, I say to the Council of Ministers: Immediately withdraw your conclusion because you will get nothing at the Fiscal Council!” Niksic concluded.
Stalemate for BiH
If the Fiscal Council does not accept the proposal to amend the fiscal framework, Kristo announced that the budget with corrections that would enable the payment will still be submitted to the BiH Presidency, with a request that both the Presidency and the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH) adopt it as soon as possible.
Economist Admir Cavalic also commented that in this way Milorad Dodik is trying to extract negotiations while having brought the state of BiH into a stalemate:
“Mr. Amidzic comes from the political entity SNSD, he is a key figure. If there is a will to work on drafting a new budget, rebalancing the budget, and planning new funds, but to first obligate the RS entity, political will is needed. But what is the problem, why one crisis links to another? Because you have an entity that enacts unconstitutional laws, and does not respect Constitutional Court decisions or state laws. The question is how can one expect it to respect financial obligations? So, we are now in a new framework where the RS entity is beginning to fail to meet financial obligations, which previously was unquestioned and taken for granted.”, N1 writes.
