At today’s extraordinary session of the Fiscal Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no agreement was reached on the proposals of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina for resolving the ICSID Tribunal’s arbitration award in the case of Viaduct d.o.o. Portorož and others against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We emphasize that by settling the multi-million obligation, which is a consequence of the arbitration dispute with the Slovenian company Vijaduct d.o.o Portorož against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to stop the further calculation of interest, which amounts to 9,000 euros on a daily basis, and enable the uninterrupted functioning of the BiH Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA), but also to stop the enforcement proceedings initiated by the plaintiffs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad, which are aimed at endangering the property of the Central Bank of BiH and the budgetary funds of the BiH institutions.
Also, referring to certain information presented in the media regarding funds from the profit of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we note that the profit of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is paid into the budget of the institutions of BiH in accordance with the Law on the Central Bank, is the own income of the budget of the institutions of BiH and is used to cover expenses within the budget of the institutions of BiH or possibly distributed in some other way exclusively and only as prescribed by the Law on the Budget of the Institutions of BiH and International Obligations of BiH.
The simplest, fastest and most legal way to implement the arbitration award in order to prevent further harmful consequences for Bosnia and Herzegovina and which will not cause problems in the functioning of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, both in this year and in the following years, is the correction of the Law on the Budget of BiH Institutions on the expenditure side through direct transfers.
